


Burning in the Dark

by AFanWhoFeelsThings



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dark, Erotica, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Shameless Smut, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-03-13 19:08:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13577091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AFanWhoFeelsThings/pseuds/AFanWhoFeelsThings
Summary: An ongoing series of erotic one-shots ft. Barry Allen and Iris West.Not much plot at all, if any. Hopping all over time and the multiverse.Pretty much a buffet of smut with a side of angst, but I may serve fluff for dessert every now and then.It’s the only way I can think of right now to process the tsunami of feels I have for one of my all-time favorite ships, WestAllen.This is my first time writing for WestAllen or TF. Be gentle?





	1. What He Needs to Hear

**Author's Note:**

> As for chapter one...  
> I was feeling all kinds of angsty and wanted to write something about Mr. and Mrs. West-Allen, so out popped this little number.  
> This ignores Devoe, Dibny, and prison, they got lost in the speed force, I dunno.

 

_“Barry!”_

A sound as familiar to the scarlet speedster as his own heartbeat rang out behind him as he came sliding to a forceful stop in the breach room at last. It was the sound of his Iris, calling his name. Her voice was _home_ and it filled him with instant relief.

He was pulling off his cowl before the crackle of electric speed force energy trailing behind him faded completely, his eyes seeking out her stunning face.

Despite successfully remaining outwardly calm as he departed Earth-13 a few moments ago, Barry could feel emotion clawing its way up from his gut as Iris practically flew across the metal floor, right into his long arms. He pulled her into him and held her in a grip so tight it alarmed her.

Their heartbeats pounded against each other’s through the heated leather of his suit and her much more delicate blouse. His was so fast it felt like thunder was trapped inside of him, just beneath the surface.

“Iris.” Barry’s voice was low with weariness and barely contained emotion. He breathed her in, closing his eyes to lean into her as he lifted her from her feet to get her even closer. “Iris…”

“I’m here. We were so worried when we couldn’t reach you. What happened?” Iris whispered, feeling a sharp pang of concern for him seize her by the stomach. He didn’t answer at first, just enclosed her petite frame tighter against his as he buried his face into her soft, thick onyx curls. Iris held him, folding her arms around his neck. “Barry? What is it? What’s wrong?”

Barry finally released her body and stepped back to take hold of her face. He gazed down at Iris through wet, smoldering green eyes that took in every detail they saw several times over. And then finally he gave a small shake of his head. _His_ Iris was safe and alive. He let that reality wash over him.

Earth-13, what happened to her doppleganger there...it was behind him. It was over.

“Nothing.” His chest was tight, but he managed to answer her. “Just glad to see you. Glad to be _home_.”

Iris nodded slowly, studying him with a tentative smile of reassurance. There was no feeling that could compare to having Barry in her arms again whenever he returned from taking down a dangerous metavillan or thwarting some otherworldly threat. Her Bear, buzzing with superhuman adrenaline, breathing hard from relief to be back where he belonged. Gentle yet strong and burning up all the time. No feeling at all like having him revving like an engine inside her embrace, except when something was wrong.

The way he was looking at her now, it was the same look he got when he thought he was going to lose her. She didn’t see it that often, they had been through so much and learned from it all; but she’d seen it enough times to dread it.

Mrs. West-Allen allowed herself to get caught up in the fire in her husband’s eyes as Barry leaned in and pressed his lips to hers without another word. Inhaling her scent through flared nostrils, Barry’s mouth pulled against hers slowly, his thumbs stroking the lines of her jaw and velvet, flushed cheeks.

When they reluctantly broke apart, the rest of Team Flash took turns to welcome Barry back, but Iris didn’t miss the way his hands clutched at her before they were forced to disconnect. The heat from his long fingers seemed to find its way through her clothes to imprint her skin, and she felt their absence when they were gone.

She relinquished his attention to her dad and to be checked over by Caitlin and Cisco for now, but Iris determined to herself to find out what he wasn’t saying as soon as they were properly alone.

 

* * *

 

Iris felt Barry’s eyes on her.

She usually felt his eyes on her; they were in love, and at times simply seeing each other in the same room was enough to keep them both going, with everything they faced. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that there were dark thoughts hidden in the way Barry stared at her now. They hung in the air between them as Barry followed her through the door into their large, beautiful, dark loft.

Over the years since she figured out that he was The Flash, Iris had taught herself to read Barry by what she felt in the air around him. He had been buzzing with energy since the day he got his powers. Struck by lightning, indeed. She knew her Bear inside and out, always, but the speed force had become yet another indicator. It was constantly in flux inside him, and she came to recognize that it had different thrums depending on his mood.

She hadn’t felt anything like this emanating from him since they went through all those months of silent terror at the possibility of Savitar murdering her.

_What the hell happened to him on Earth-13?_

After setting her keys and purse on the table at the back of the couch, she turned around to face whatever it was burning in his eyes before they took another step in their home.

“So are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?”

He sighed at the sharp, pinched concern in her voice, lowering his eyes and scratching the back of his neck to stall for an answer. “Iris…”

The way he said her name sounded like a denial. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth again to quietly demand that he tell her the truth, _now_. Before she uttered a word, a gust of wind and a trail of orange lightning delivered her into Barry’s arms, his lips on hers.

Barry didn’t want to talk. Every needy kiss was his plea to her not to make him.

Her enticing scent overwhelmed him as he held her tightly against him, trapping her top lip between his with a low sigh. He sucked on it slowly, closing his eyes in bliss, his chest caving with satisfaction. Every time he kissed her it felt like he was biting into a caramelized confection. Her lipstick slipped off onto his mouth, igniting the slow burn of longing inside him. The fuse burned from his grasping lips through his chest and down into the pit of his stomach. She whimpered and he knew he had her distracted from prying the truth from him, finally.

Iris felt Barry’s long fingers in her hair, sliding around her neck, and then stroking her jaw and cheek as he nuzzled her mouth with his for urgent entry. He licked and nipped at her candy lips, coaxing them to part for him. She gave in easily, letting him take control of the situation. _Mmm,_ her Barry, lean and taught. She broke against him like a frothy ocean wave around his heated, steadfast shore.  

His grip was so strong she had no chance of moving once he held her in place. He was so close all she could see were his closed eyes, angular jaw, thin red lips, and long, dark lashes underneath thick eyebrows furrowed in concentration. He always got lost when he kissed her. It sent a shiver down her spine. She opened her mouth to pull at his bottom lip. Barry groaned. Iris pulled a little harder.

The electricity crackling in the blood racing just under his skin raised her nipples beneath her blouse. He rocked with her, unable to resist sliding a hand down her back, his fingers feasting on the soft cotton and then leather fabric of her shirt and skirt. Barry wrapped his hand around a palmful of her ass and squeezed, groaning again, this time just above a whisper as he slipped his tongue inside her downturned mouth. _Iris._

She tasted so good, like salted caramel, so addictive. That, mingled with the olfactory feast of her skin and her hair sent his head spinning toward memories of the days when he secretly chased after the high of the way Iris smelled. All those years, cherishing their hugs and close talks or any whiff of her he could get when she swung those big, shining black curls around too close to him.

Now he could treat himself to that smell any time he liked, his own personal drug. He needed it, needed _her_. Her velveteen flesh, feverish with her vivacious spirit, all tangled up in his long arms.

Iris moaned when she felt Barry grow suddenly stiff and long against her hip. A heartbeat later she was on her back on the couch being pressed down into the cushions by his insistent weight.

Each and every minute of the forty-eight hours he’d spend on Earth-13 had been dragged down with the dead weight of his longing for Iris. _His_ Iris.

The tragedy he witnessed there only made it ten times worse.

She felt his tongue invade her mouth again and her sex began to throb with longing. She tried to clench her thighs together to relieve her need for friction but Barry did her one better -- hiking up her skirt and burying himself between her legs. She felt his length, hard and twitching, at a sharp, torturous angle across her pussy through her panties and his fitted jeans. She moaned into his mouth, grabbing his hair and neck to pull him closer. Barry tried to brace himself with two firm handfuls of the couch, not wishing to crush the wind out of her, but he wanted to touch her too badly to keep that up for long. Iris gyrated her hips slowly against him, overcome with yearning. Barry felt himself become painfully hard and exhaled sharply through his nostrils. He grabbed at her soft thigh again, grinding, his skin flushed as he tilted his head this way and that to get at her plush lips. Iris held his face and kissed it. Barry felt like he was on a roller coaster as the round, supple flesh of her backside rolled down into the couch cushions before rising to grind her throbbing, slippery sex against the bulge threatening the seams in his jeans.

“I was so worried about you, Barry.” Iris whispered, her gorgeous lips laying soft, moist kisses across his throat and jaw. She kissed each dark freckle that created the constellation on his neck just under the collar of his shirt. “I was afraid you couldn’t find your way home to me.”

“I’ll always come back to you, Iris. Always...” He promised, his voice deepened with lust as he angled his face down to taste her honied lips again. He was buzzing, and he began to vibrate, his lean, muscular form blurring before her eyes. Iris gasped against his kisses in response, shivering, clinging to his neck, scratching his scalp with her nails. He adored how needy she always was for him when they got going. It drove him crazy. Barry let out a sharp hiss and grabbed her.

Barely a breath went by, followed by the swirling of orange combustion and wind. Iris felt kisses and manhandling as her clothes were _wooshed_ from her body and she was carefully propped up on the furry white pillow in all of two seconds. She was wearing nothing but her fleshed-toned, lace thong.

Her hair was splayed across it, black mingled with bright white as it cradled her neck. Barry was hovering over her, still between her legs, hard and poking up from the seam of his boxer briefs. His warm, freckled skin hugged and caressed her smooth, flawless body. He gazed down at her with an ocean of love swimming so deeply in his eyes that she felt like she would drown in them. His swollen head found her center through her wet, tight panties as she panted with barely contained anticipation.

“Inside me, _please_ , Barry!” Iris begged, her need going to her head. Her sex ached for him, clenching around the memory of him from the last time they made love three days ago.

She reached between them and tugged down her panties, then grabbed his underwear and tugged those down too. She flung the wet things off of her foot across the room somewhere while he shimmied his down by the edge of the rug. Iris licked her lips, then the palm of her hand, and reached down to stroke him, using her saliva and his precum to lubricate him. Barry grunted, holding her closer, the fingers of one big hand digging into the soft, furry pillow and the other wrapping around the thick of her thigh. Her wedding ring shined in the moonlight as her free hand settled on his exposed ass. She slowed her stroking and thrust her hips, biting her lip, her center seeking out his hard length.

“Spread your legs. Wider.” He demanded now, his voice low and husky. He watched her unfold and offer herself to him, mesmerized, and rubbed his aching head along her warm, oozing slit.

Iris was so hot and wet and tender beneath him. Every time, he had to pause to let the reality wash over him. The woman of his dreams, the love of his life -- his Iris -- his _wife_. He thrust into her finally, his swollen, pink head breaking past the barrier of her brown, milky wet little lips, and they both moaned with unchecked pleasure. He sank deeper into her tight sex, inhaling her sweet scent, pumping hard and slow.

“I missed you.” He confessed, thrusting and dropping his face into her chest. His short shock of dark brown hair fell into his eyes as he began licking at her heavy, bouncing breasts. He caught one between his thin red lips and sucked.

Iris cried out, meeting his thrusts hungrily, sliding herself along his cock so he hit her in just the right spot every time. Her small hands clutched at his back and narrow, muscular rear as he thrust into her indulgently. “What’s wrong, Barry?” She breathed. “What happened to you, baby?”

Even through the fog of lust, she was concerned for him. He could feel it radiating from her; her love, her worry. He shook his head, licking her breast and pumping into her harder to get her to focus. “ _Shh_...I need to feel you cum for me, Iris.”

She was so wet she was dripping all over him. Good. _Yes._ Iris. _Fuck._ He had to go faster. She was too much. She felt too good inside, and writhing all around him; soft, downy flesh wrapped in crushed velvet.

Barry began to lose control, watching her devastatingly beautiful face contort in ecstasy and need while he thrust faster and harder. The moment slowed to a crawl and Barry could see every second of it played out in slow motion, bright and stimulating. Jagged belts of orange and yellow electricity flickered in the air as Barry inhaled, thrust, exhaled, and Iris licked her lips _“mmmmm, dooonnn’t stooop, Baaarrryyyy…!”_ at a surreal crawl. He stared at her moaning and gasping, all lit up by the speed force, its energy licking at her skin, flying through her hair, dancing across her closed eyes and thick, black, fluttering lashes. It was feasting on her, too. It craved Iris like he did. _God,_ she was so amazing.

Every heartbeat lasted a lifetime as he watched her lose herself in what he was doing to her. The sight of her like this made him ache from his abdomen to the tip of his head as he buried himself inside her over and over again.

Time broke free of his powers and they were moving at normal speed, fucking intensely on the couch in their living room against the backdrop of Central City at nightfall. Barry stared at Iris’s face, reaching down to stroke his fingers across her wet, swollen clit. He concentrated a steady barrage of vibration just there, watching for her reaction. Iris cried out and grabbed her own hair, tossing her head back, bewitching him.

“I-I’m _coming_ , ohhhh my god, Bear!” The sound of his nickname slipping frantically from her wet lips drove Barry wild with love and lust. He pumped harder and vibrated inside her, groaning loudly when he felt her walls spasm around him, squeezing and pulling him closer to climax.

Iris clawed at him and rolled her hips against his long, heavy body like a wild thing, riding out her orgasm. Watching her and feeling her convulse around him was too much. Barry gripped her to him, the speed force lighting up his eyes. He was following her, exploding; it hit him all at once, curling his toes, his seed skyrocketing forth powerfully. Iris moaned for the feel of his hardness pulsing as he filled her.

They were both slippery with sweat when their breathing finally calmed. He cleaned them both with several of the Kleenex sitting on the coffee table and was easing down again to lay on his back next to her in seconds. His chest rose and caved deeply, glistening in the moonlight. Iris forced her heavy eyes open before she slipped into a deep sleep from how thoroughly spent and satisfied she was.

He stared up at the ceiling, looking dazed with post-coital lethargy, but still somewhat pensive.

“Hey.” She called gently. His jaw clenched, his frown deepening as he absentmindedly stroked himself, already missing her tightness and wetness around him.

 _Tell me what happened to you_ , she didn’t say, but he knew that’s still what she wanted. As amazing as the sex was, it hadn’t worked. His girl was tenacious; always had been.

Sighing hard, Barry tore his gaze from the ceiling and looked at her. His eyes flickered up and down at her, taking in her devastating beauty. Finally, he spoke, no longer resisting what usually came so naturally with them.

“Iris, I know I was supposed to just concentrate on getting what we needed, but I...I got involved again. This time it was worse than Earth-2. Way worse.”

Iris turned over on her side, watching the darkness descend across Barry’s face. She listened, afraid to hear but still riveted.

Barry paused, those forty-eight hours weighing heavily on his heart. He forced himself to get it off his chest.

“I-I didn’t mean to, but _she_ found me. Your doppelganger.” He swallowed hard and continued, his green eyes shining with unshed tears. “The ‘Earth-13 me’ was already dead. He wasn’t a speedster, he got killed by a metahuman, trying to protect her.” Her guilt-ridden husband uttered, and her mouth fell open in silent shock and sorrow. Barry shook his head, choking back emotion. “She was so broken. She thought I was him when she first found me, and it broke my heart to have to tell her that I wasn’t. That I would have to leave.”

“Wow, Barry, that’s _awful_.” Her eyes glowed with empathy. She reached over and stroked his neck and cheek affectionately. He took her hand and kissed it, letting his tears fall from his long, downturned lashes. Her curiosity got the better of her and she couldn’t help asking: “What happened to her?”

“She sacrificed herself to save me and Harry.” His voice was barely above a whisper. “We both tried, but we couldn’t stop her. I couldn’t _save_ her. It was like watching Savitar murder you all over again. And I can’t go back. She’s gone now and it’s my…”

Barry’s voice broke, his jaw clenched. He released her hand and covered his face with his arm, his chest heaving with silent sobs.

“Barry.” Iris intoned, truly feeling for him. Feeling for the Iris from Earth-13, and knowing how devastated _she_ would be if she ever lost _her_ Barry from this Earth. She knew she would do the same thing. If it ever came down to it, Iris would give her life to save Barry’s. She took a deep breath and scooted closer to him while he blew his frustration out through his pursed lips. He slipped an arm around her narrow waist when she covered his torso with her leg and made herself comfortable, nestled in his body heat. “Look at me.”

A lingering tear fell from Barry’s eye, glistening with the light from the city just above their heads, wetting a path across his temple and into his ear. He sniffed hard and turned to angle his face down toward hers. He needed her to reassure him.

“You wanna know what I believe?”

He lifted his chin at her, his fingertips scaling the planes of her skin wherever they could reach. “Hm?”

“If _I_ were that Iris, I would do the same thing.” He started to protest with a heavy sigh but she wouldn’t let him interrupt her. “You said once, when you met yourself after...after I was supposed to die...that future you was broken, too, when you looked into his eyes. You said when the Earth-2 version of my dad died, you felt it, even though he wasn’t really ours. He was theirs.”

Barry nodded reluctantly, frowning. Iris raised her eyebrows at him expectantly, stroking his jaw to keep him with her.

“I get it, Barry. I know it hurts you, but you can’t save everyone. You’re not God, you’re The Flash. Sometimes, it’s you who needs saving.”

Barry’s heart clenched at the thought of Iris, or any of his friends, dying to save him again, like Eddie, and Ronnie, and so many others on this Earth and across the multiverse. Still, he heard her.

She smiled, her round cheeks and cute nose glowing. Barry leaned into her, his lips and nose brushing against hers. “ _We’re_ The Flash.” He corrected, staring at her mouth.

“That’s right, we are.” Iris breathed, trying to get this out before he distracted her again with how perfectly hot and handsome he was. “Any one of us would do the same for you that Iris did.” She ignored the weirdness of referring to herself in third person. It wasn’t her. Something she had to get used to, and so did Barry. He had to, or every trip where he encountered another version of themselves that didn’t go well would haunt him with no end in sight. “I’m grateful to her. Tonight, she’s my hero for bringing me back my Barry.”

“You started saving my life the day I met you, Iris West-Allen.”

“I would do it again, and again, and _again_ , Barry Allen.”

His dark expression cleared and he smiled sadly, sweetly, pulling her closer to him so she could kiss his face. Barry let out a deep breath as Iris’s love and soothing words washed over him.

“Let it go, Flash...” she whispered, kissing his tears away, her fingers combing his soft hair. “You’re home now. Let it go and be with me. Okay?”

“Okay.” He nodded, kissing her velvety-soft shoulder. Heat sprouted in his stomach as her breathing became more shallow. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She felt him grow hard against her thigh and her still-damp sex responded, throbbing for him. “Take me upstairs, Bar -- ”

Before she finished her breath, she was upstairs under the covers in their cool, plush bed. Barry was rolling around with her in their sheets, tasting every inch of her mouth while parting her legs and slipping his yearning length, slowly and reverently, inside her.


	2. You're A Liar, Too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As for chapter two...  
> This is pretty much how I wish Iris would’ve considered confronting Barry about being The Flash.  
> I've been doing a lot of binging of clips, and my favorite interactions with them were on the roof at CC Jitters while he's The Flash.  
> So...I’m not sorry about this.

 

_Think about your best friend._

_It could be your wife...your father...maybe someone you grew up with._

_It’s the person you can’t wait to talk to at the end of the day._

_The person who knows everything about you. Roots for you._

_Now...imagine you discover that your best friend has a secret._

_No. Not just ‘a’ secret. A_ **_universe_ ** _of secrets._

_Would you confront him? Would you stay silent?_

_Either way...you know nothing will ever be the same again._

_That’s my dilemma tonight. I need to speak to someone I can trust._

_I need someone brave enough to tell me the truth. Once and for all._

_Meet me. You know where._

_-IW_

 

* * *

 

 

Iris stood ringing her hands, deep in thought, ignoring the city skyline all lit up at night. The thoughts racing through her head rendered the buildings and activity below her to blurry streaks of yellows, reds and pale whites.

She endured the damp, dreary atmosphere as she stood on the roof of CC Jitters, going over and over these last few months in her head, lamenting the bitterly sad situation she found herself in.

Her best friend had been lying to her about a hell of a lot more than just his feelings for her. He’d been keeping her in the dark about something life-changing since he woke up from that coma. Her, the one person he claimed he trusted more than anyone.

The sheer size of Barry’s lies weighed Iris down with weary sadness.

Especially when she thought about how vulnerable and trusting she’d been with the so-called Flash. Iris crushed her eyes shut with embarrassment and hurt, bouncing her thighs together beneath her cotton button-down dress to warm herself. Any time she was around The Flash before, it excited and fascinated her because there was just _something_ about him that was so...easy. So natural, even though he was this powerful, tight-lipped, impossibly fast stranger.

The way his flirting with her just _clicked_ instead of turning her off or creeping her out. Like they’d both been waiting to flirt with each other since she started writing her blog. But that was because it was Barry, and he knew how excited she’d been about the mysterious ‘Streak’. _God_ , she just felt so stupid.

On top of it all, the man she was _supposed_ to be in love with was missing. Possibly hurt, or worse. Just thinking about what poor Eddie might be going through right now, lost somewhere with no idea if he would ever escape alive as the hours ticked by, made her heart pound with fear and guilt. This was all her fault.

No, it was _his_ fault. Barry’s and The Flash’s. For repeatedly lying to her.

 _Come off it, Iris_ , she scolded herself. _You’re a liar, too._ She’d always been lying. Right up until last Christmas. Ever since Barry told her how he felt about her, she could no longer lie to herself. Especially not on those rare nights when she was alone in the dark, reaching deep down inside her. It was those nights, without Eddie around, when Iris found herself thinking about her best friend.

Sweet, nerdy, protective, intense, loyal and brave Barry. Her Bear...she loved him. She loved him with all her heart. It made this nightmare of a situation all the more gut-wrenching. Knowing that another human being had been dragged into this firestorm of feelings between them.

Eddie was paying for all their lies. All because Barry didn’t trust her enough to tell her the truth and she was too afraid to change the dynamic of their relationship after fifteen precious years.

Iris needed answers. She needed the truth, now. About his feelings, his powers, what the man in yellow wanted with Eddie. About _everything_.

She took a deep breath and dabbed at the tears threatening to spill out onto her cheeks with the sleeve of her trench coat. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked the display. It had been almost ten minutes since she’d posted the message for him to meet her on the blog like last time, when she was looking for Mason. Iris had a feeling it would work again now, but he was taking his time.

Before things got all crazy and complicated between them, he’d have been here, whooshing around her in a streak of smoky electricity seconds after she hit ‘post’.  Iris hugged herself, turning around to survey the roof for any signs of him, growing more exhausted and more disheartened by the minute.

She blinked. There was a gust of wind and a small bolt of bright orange lightning, and Iris found him suddenly standing a few feet away in front of her, shrouded in shadow.

 _The Flash._ Her Barry.

The air smelled like it was charged with his presence; an exposed power line; the explosive aftermath of firecrackers in summer. The warm, beating life of him swirled around her whenever he moved, blowing her hair and clothes this way and that until he stilled again, buzzing with power. She felt his eyes on her even though she could only make out the outline of his face underneath that mask in the dark.

_Sometimes I don’t know why I wear a mask with you..._

“Iris. We shouldn’t be talking.” His manipulated voice was a serious, strident vibrato. “Not while the man in yellow is still out there.”

That voice used to cause a shiver to shoot down her spine. She now heard it much differently.

The Flash was no less larger than life, no less thrilling to be around, but everything about him had changed overnight with the realization of the truth. Knowing that it was her Barry radiating all that power instead of some stranger made it all the more confusing and distracting.

“ _Eddie_ is still out there, too.” Iris swallowed hard and stood her ground. “It’s been two days. You said you’d find him.”

“I know. I _will._ ” He took a step forward, his tall, lean frame tensing with urgency. Iris glared at him, unable to stop scrutinizing his every move, comparing it to Barry’s. “I promise you. I’m doing everything I can to find Detective Thawne. But the CCPD are no match for the man who took him. He’s too fast and _too_ dangerous. You have to trust me on this one, okay?”

Though his voice was different, deeper with a heavier timber than Barry’s, in that moment he sounded more like her best friend than ever. She shook her head, so disappointed in him. “Trust you? How can I when you’ve been _lying_ to me?”

She watched his chest rise and his shadowed jaw clench, and a second later he was gone. The air sparked and a flash of light whooshed past her until she could feel him behind her. “I’m not…” He whispered, his voice still deeply altered by his powers.

Iris felt a shiver on her skin from a memory of the first time he stood behind her like this. She dared to turn around and face him. “Yes. You _are_ , Barry. I know, okay? I _know_ that you’re The Flash. So, please. Just _stop_. Stop lying to me. Right now.”

He flinched. She saw his body react to her words, but he didn’t disappear from her sight or even rush to beg her forgiveness. He simply took a deep breath and stopped vibrating his face until she could see it clearly. Slowly, the weight of his secret sitting heavily across his broad shoulders, he stepped closer to her under the faint light. Iris let her breath go, her eyes narrowing at his forlorn, contrite face underneath the mask he wore.

Finally his burning gaze met hers, alight with apprehension, though his demeanor suggested that he had already accepted his fate, her anger. Her message for The Flash had clearly gotten through to Barry.

Iris shook her head at him, taking it all in now that she could see part of his face. “How could you?”

“Iris, I wanted to tell you. I should’ve.” He had stopped manipulating his voice, too. He stepped closer but she shrank away from him, leaving his gloved hands grasping at the air around her. “Look, I know you’re angry and I can expl-- ”

“I’m not angry, Barry.” She cut him off, her voice shaking. “I’m just disappointed. All this time you’ve been standing right in front of me, listening to me pour my heart out to The Flash. Lying to me about who you really are. You were supposed to be my best friend!”

The Flash reached up and snatched his cowl back, revealing his flushed skin and disheveled shock of dark brown hair. It was like he was transformed from the neck up, no longer a mysterious dark figure. Now her best friend Barry was there, adorned with supernatural power and deep scarlet.

“I _am_ your best friend!” He protested, towering over her, taking hold of her arms to halt her escape. “You were the first person I wanted to tell.”

“So why didn’t you? Why wasn’t I?” She breathed, hot tears leaking from her eyes despite her efforts to control them.

“I-I couldn’t tell you it was me then, but it’s _always_ been the same me you’ve known since we were ten. I was with you, Iris. I was listening.” Barry glared down at her beseechingly. “I know you feel like you can’t trust The Flash right now, but you can trust _me_.”

Iris shuddered as he rubbed her arms, pulling her so close to him that she had to lift her head back to look up into his eyes. He reached up and took her by the cheek, cradling her to him. She felt the heat radiating through his suit, felt the energy thrumming inside him, and smelled -- now that she was so close to him -- faint whispers of the cologne Barry wore all the time, a version of one of Henry Allen’s old favorites.

“I’m gonna make this right. I _swear_ , I’m gonna stop the man in yellow.”

Iris let her tears fall in his arms, letting herself relax against his tall, muscular body. Barry sighed softly and leaned forward to rest his forehead against hers, still stroking her cheek.

“W-what if he hurts Eddie? How do you know you can stop him?”

“I will save Eddie. I’ll do anything for you.” He breathed, rocking with her as his arm circled around her waist. His chest caved in and rose up again, his heartbeat thundering through his suit. He gripped her cheek, his lips inches from hers. “I love you, Iris…”

Iris stared at his pursed, red mouth and his angular jaw. Her body betrayed her, and in that moment all she wanted was to forget everything and let herself feel anything other than worry and guilt. “I…” she drew in a breath, her fingers sliding up his torso to grip his taught shoulder. “I love you too. I can’t stop thinking about you. I can’t fight it anymore. I don’t want to.”

Barry leaned back, his eyes searching hers, a hopeful frown frozen on his handsome face.

She stood up on the toes of her boots, her other arm rising to hook around his strong neck.

“It doesn’t matter to me if you’re The Flash or not, Barry. It’s _you_ that I wan--”

His mouth was on hers before she could finish, crushing her against him as he tasted her succulent lips.

Iris felt Barry’s fingers slip from her cheek and lace into the thick waves of her hair, holding her steady to deepen the kiss with his tongue. He groaned and she whimpered. Her eyes fluttered shut and in that instant she felt the cold, damp stone of the wall that _was_ a few feet away a second ago now against her back, Barry’s weight sinking into hers in the shadows.

Static electricity licked at her skin as the smooth leather of his suit brushed along her supple curves. She got goosebumps, causing her nipples to harden and poke against the soft cotton of her dress. The wind tantalized her, swirling through her coat and around her legs as they kissed heatedly on the roof where they used to meet and orbit each other as strangers.

She could feel a long thickness pressing into her hip, straining against the sharp angles and fortified fabric of his suit. _Yes. God, yes she wanted this._ She wanted Barry inside her. She wanted to feel his oscillating power burning her up and driving her wild.

Iris reached up and tugged at one of his big hands, forcing him to let it slip from her tear-stained cheek. She planted sweet, feather-light kisses on his flushed lips as she pulled his hand down her body and spread her legs.

He let go of her face to steady himself against the wall when Iris guided one of his long fingers down past the hem of her dress and up into her panties. She lost her mind and all her resolve when he touched her. She swore she could feel the jolt of electricity he’d given her when she realized he was The Flash leave his fingertips as he rubbed her tender, warm, wet slit. 

Barry bucked his hips into her, causing her to lift one of her legs and straddle him as he pushed her into the wall. His fingers slid in and out of her panties, slick and slippery with her arousal, and he buried his face in her neck, his breath shocking her skin.

In a daze, he pumped two fingers in and out of her while massaging her aching clit with his thumb, biting, licking and kissing her neck.

“Ahhh!” Iris cried out, her voice stolen by the wind. She hiked herself up onto his hips, kissing his lips and jaw and cheeks and Adam’s apple. Utterly lost in longing, Iris reached down between them to hastily free Barry’s dick from his suit as she rode his hand against the wall.

She got the metal belt buckle open and the padded fly unzipped, dipping her grasping fingers past his carved abdomen to find her prize. Barry growled against her shoulder, sweat sprouting along his brow as Iris finally wrapped her hand around his thick, pulsing erection and pulled it out of its protective prison.

Viscous precum oozed from Barry’s swollen pink head, giving Iris plenty of hot, silky lubricant to prime him as she stroked and kissed him. He slid his fingers out of her wet, clenching sex to hike up her dress and pull at her panties. Barry snatched them away so quickly and with so much super speed force that he ripped them apart in a blinding blur of movement.

Iris gasped against his mouth, pulling back to gaze into his eyes as her hand slowed its steady massage of his pale length. The unmasked hero braced himself in his friction-proof boots, holding the wall with one hand and using the other to hold her against him by the thigh.

They rested their foreheads together as Iris steered him into her tight, yearning sex, both moaning with strained pleasure once he finally filled her. Barry thrust slowly at first until he completely bottomed out, buried as deep inside her as he could go.

“I wanted to tell you. God, I wanted to, every time, Iris.” He panted as he began to pump in and out of her, causing shockwaves to skyrocket through her. Iris ran her hands through his hair, pulling it back from his face. Barry hissed at the sensation, pumping faster, drenched with her, drugged by her, so in love with her. “ _I love you so much._ ”

“I love you too!” Iris confessed a second time, her lips sticky against his forehead as she held on for dear life while he fucked her faster. Barry reached up and tore at her blouse, popping the buttons open to reveal her lacy white bra. Her nipples were two taught little brown pebbles straining against the fabric in the chilly evening air. Barry licked at one through the lace, sucking it into his mouth as he drove his lengthy girth into her steamy little pussy, her firm, fine ass bouncing on top of his leather-clad hips.

Barry let go of her breast to stare at her in awe and unbridled adoration. Then his eyes darkened.

“Let go, Iris. Let yourself _feel_ me.” He demanded, vibrating his voice so that he sounded like The Flash. He started to vibrate something else as he drilled into her, sending fireworks shooting through her body.

She was crying with pleasure, every ounce of her filled with heat and love, dizzy from how badly she’d been yearning to have Barry inside of her. So powerful and strong. So fast and alluring. A hero. _Her_ hero. She had come here for the truth and this was it.

Barry fucked Iris until she came all over him, mewling against his lips, her lashes wet, her long, curly tresses damp and disheveled. He kissed her lovingly, stroking her thigh and ass with his warm, long fingers under her billowing trench coat while his breathing calmed. Iris hugged him tightly, reveling in the feel of his lips on her skin and his body between her legs, not wishing to open her eyes and see the city -- their hard, bleak reality -- behind them, waiting to claim them again.

“Open your eyes.” Barry whispered deeply, kissing her cheek and then her neck. She shivered. He was still inside her. He flexed his hips, his spent length twitching against her clenched walls. “Open them.”

She did. She instantly regretted it.

She wasn’t on the CC Jitters rooftop anymore. No longer in Barry’s arms. She was staring at the ceiling, three fingers buried deep inside her throbbing sex, drenched in the results of her fantasy.

Iris shot up from her mountain of pillows, breathing hard, her skin saturated with a thin layer of sweat.

Her heart was pounding out of her chest as she gazed around her, shocked by how viciously she’d been snatched from such a vivid, intense fantasy. A fantasy about Barry. _The Flash._ None of the mind-numbing ecstasy of it had been real. But that only made her crave it more.

Disappointment, sorrow, and shame washed over her like invisible ice water.

She sat alone in the dark, empty bedroom of the apartment she shared with Eddie, her body alight with longing for her best friend. Barry, metahuman, guardian angel, liar, pretender. Her boyfriend was missing and all she could think about...all she wanted right then in that very moment...was the feel of that friction-proof leather sliding against her, his big hands grabbing at her flesh, his hot lips kissing her, and all that speed, all that _power_ drilling into her.

 _God damn it_ , she was wet and aching again. _I’m going to hell..._

Defeated, Iris lay back against her pillows. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she trapped her bottom lip between her teeth, closed her eyes, and touched herself.  


	3. The Christmas Wish, p1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As for chapter three...  
> I'm not really sure what came over me.  
> Except that one of my favorite things about them is how close (physically and emotionally) they've always been with each other, even when they were just best friends. 
> 
> ...I wanted Christmas, closeness, and what I think of as “intense fluff”. This came tumbling out of my head.  
> Iris and Barry are 18 and 19. This would obviously change canon, so I just went with it.

**_...part one..._ **

 

 

Over the years, Barry Allen had gradually gotten used to, and then eventually grown to love, all the familiar scents haunting the West house. They came to signal home, and family, to him.

The way the years clung to the furniture, the curtains, the wood holding everything together. The basement was good for a whiff of the aging rubber from the wheels on their old bikes, lingering chemical odors from Barry’s ambitious science experiments, or the dust from the shelves of records tucked in every corner. Joe’s cologne and Iris’s various body butters and hair oils seemed to permeate every room upstairs, crowding out Barry’s simple soap and musk. The siren aromas of Grandma Esther’s famous recipes floated around at dinnertime downstairs on any given weeknight. Notes of the spicy chicken broth from her noodle soup dish, the pleasant heartiness of her biscuits and gravy, that unnamable, alluring _something_ that announced her green bean casserole.

All these different smells carried memories that had reshaped and now defined Barry’s childhood. Especially the ones that wafted around the house during Christmas.

Christmas at the West house had the air thick with the fragrance of pecan pie, spiked eggnog with cinnamon, and the peppermint candy canes Iris used to stir her hot chocolate. Or the smell of roast chicken and stuffing dancing down the halls to tickle his stomach and make his mouth water. On cold, quiet days he got the fresh pine scent of whichever tree he and Joe had hauled into the living room from their local lot that year, coupled with the aging boxes of decorations they brought down from the attic.

Movie nights during chilly winters were Barry’s favorite, though. There was sometimes snuggling because it just felt right with the weather. On those nights, his olfactory senses were treated to drafts of buttery popcorn mingled with zesty, sweet hints of the “winter berry” shea butter lotion Iris wore just for the holidays.

He was so happy to finally get back to her after a long, stressful fall semester and a week of grueling final exams. Even though dorm life at Michigan State was freeing in a way, Barry found himself missing Joe and Iris every day. His work kept him busy with a lot of looming deadlines and sleepless nights racing to get something done in the student labs. Most days Barry only smelled coffee, books, cadavers, chemicals, and his roommate Kenny’s B.O.

Last year, Joe had brought him home to a bursting ball of Christmas cheer in the form of Iris, warm and slinky and tiny in his embrace, smelling _amazing_ and flashing a dazzling smile as she hugged him tight.

That was their first time being separated for so long since he’d come to live with them. Iris had been so happy to see him that she rewarded him with a few of those cozy movie nights. That was also the year they started having these _moments_ , when it seemed like Iris wanted to do more than just snuggle.

When time seemed to stop. After they laughed too hard or found themselves drawing too close, like magnets. And they looked into each other’s eyes. A hitched breath, a pounding heartbeat, the flutter of eyelashes, the parting of lips, his mind screaming at him to _tell her, tell her, tell her you love her._ Or _kiss her, kiss her, kiss her, she wants you to._ They passed without comment each and every time.

Two semesters, his summer internship, and the trip she took to Italy with her friends all went by without either of them bringing it up. But those moments had been swirling around in Barry’s head ever since, and he counted the days until Christmas break came around again.

In fact, he was so excited to see her that he was already grinning from ear to ear when he turned his keys in the lock and stepped inside the cozy, familiar brown space.

Unfortunately, not only was Joe unable to pick him up this year, but Barry was disappointed to find no ball of “winter berry” cheer greeting him at the door. No gorgeous white smile, sparkling brown eyes or buoyant, sable curls. He had gotten Joe’s text about being stuck working after a lead turned into a stakeout, so he took the bus over here from the train station alone. But Iris’s flight had landed an hour ago. She should be home from her weekend trip to deliver her little cousin’s presents in person by now.

Barry slowly pulled his key from the lock and dumped his overstuffed duffle bag on the floor. He quickly scanned the hall toward the kitchen, the dining room, then the living room for any signs of her.

The lights were on. He didn’t smell dinner, but he did smell _her_. Faint hints of her lotion hung on the air. Her favorite clunky black boots had been tossed haphazardly by the bottom of the stairs. He didn’t see her purse, jacket or phone. Maybe she was somewhere else in the house and hadn’t heard him coming in.

“Iris? I’m home!” He called, frowning as his hope faded with the silence he got in return. Where was she?

Maybe she was out with friends and forgot to text him. This was her freshman year at CCU after all, and she had been separated from one of her closest girlfriends when she opted to stay local for college. Barry hadn’t considered that he wouldn’t be the first person Iris wanted to see when everyone started returning to Central City for the holidays.

He closed the door behind him dejectedly. Pulling out his phone from his jeans pocket, Barry was about to type out a message letting her know he was home when he heard a wet sniffle and a shaky little sigh coming from the couch.

“I’m here, Bear.”

“Hello..?”

“On the couch.”

Barry followed her muted, gloomy voice down the single step into the living room and around the couch. Iris was lying curled up against one of the throw pillows. She’d been crying; he could see the tear streaks making her almond skin glow in the lamplight.

“What’s up? Why are you crying?” he breathed, disheartened to see her upset. Still in his black peacoat, Barry folded his lanky body over and scooted down next to her on the couch. He instantly relaxed as the cushy old thing gave in to his weight, reaching an arm out to rest across the worn leather backing.

Iris glanced his way, her lip trembling as she hugged herself. “Nothing,” she lied, clearly upset.

“I’m serious, what happened?” Barry racked his brain for what could be causing her pain during a time when they were usually their happiest. Christmas was Iris’s favorite time of year. There were very few things that could make her so upset that she didn’t feel like welcoming him home with her adorable, infectious holiday spirit. In fact, he hadn’t seen her this upset since she lost her mother’s wedding band at the zoo. He reached down to tug gently on one of her toes through her sock, taking a decent guess. “Did being at your cousin’s remind you too much of your mom?”

“ _Ugh,_ why would there be any reminders?” Iris let out a loud scoff and shook her head, seconds before her face contorted with emotion. “My uncle is _so stubborn_ , Barry. He got mad when I tried to give Rene pictures of my mom for Christmas. He won’t talk about her, not even with my cousin. _Still._ After all these years. It’s like he started a new life and forgot she ever existed.”

He sighed hard, his mood darkening as Iris tried to stifle her tears. “I know. I’m so sorry, Iris.”

He didn’t know all the details, because Joe could be just as tight-lipped about Iris’s mother Francine as his distant brother-in-law. Her death had really ripped a hole right through what little there was of the West family. Sometimes Barry forgot that while he had gained a family when he lost his mom, Iris’s had gotten more estranged. He knew she and Joe loved him, but he understood her pain.

Not being able to connect with her uncle or share her mother’s memory with her little cousin made her sad and frustrated. The same way sometimes Barry just wanted to be alone in his room because he couldn’t get his own mother’s tragic loss or his father’s dreadful fate out of his mind.

“I don’t even know why I’m crying. He’s been like this since I can remember. We haven’t seen each other in so long, I guess...” She rolled her eyes at herself, her pretty lips turned downward, her thick lashes still damp. Barry stared at her profile in the halo of light from the lamp. She was so beautiful. “I guess I just let myself hope this year could be different.”

Her sadness, beauty, and body heat called to him, and he couldn’t resist reaching out for her.

“Hey, c’mere.” Iris wiped her face with the sleeve of her dark green sweater, letting him pull her across the couch to him for a tight hug. Barry closed his eyes and inhaled, wrapping his long arms around her petite waist. Finally, he felt like he was _home_ , buried in her curls. “I’m sorry your visit ended up so crummy, but don’t give up on Rene, okay?” He gave her a slow squeeze of encouragement, keeping his voice gentle and optimistic. “And hey, it’s Christmas and I’m here now. There’s still the tree to decorate. We can sneak and get drunk on Grandma Esther’s eggnog. We’ve got two whole weeks to watch musicals and get fat.”

She laughed against his shoulder, her voice brightening up just a little. “ _You’ll_ be watching the musicals, _I’ll_ be the one getting fat.”

Barry grinned to himself, pleased to coax her back to good spirits. His cold hands found the heated skin of her back when she reached underneath his coat to hug his neck.

Iris flinched, shrinking away from him. “Ooh, Barry you’re freezing!”

“Oh, yeah, sorry, I know. I forgot my scarf and the bus wasn’t heated.” He reluctantly released her, hoping she hadn’t noticed how much he enjoyed breathing her in. After three months of just texts and the occasional all-night talk session, finally being around her in person again was quickly going to his head. “Are you okay, though? I mean, I get it if you’re not. Joe has to work, you had a fight with your uncle. I’d be bummed, too. I _am_ bummed. For you, I mean.” He stammered.

Instead of moving back to the other side of the couch, Iris began to rub at his arms and chest, grabbing hold of both his hands between hers to warm him up. Barry blushed, his eyes flickering between her face and watching her dote on him. “Yeah I’m fine. I just wish things were different. I want Rene to know he had an aunt. Otherwise, who’s gonna remember her? It just _hits_ me sometimes, you know?”

“Yeah, with my mom, too.” Barry shrugged out of his coat at her urging, smiling as she shivered again and rubbed his back until he felt all toasty from the friction. He tried not to get distracted by the sight of her smooth brown thighs spilling out of her black velvet skirt. “Did you talk to Joe about it?”

“Uh, _no_ . Believe me, I tried, but he just ran outta here when his partner called. You know Dad’s worse than Uncle Mike around the holidays, Bear.” Iris huffed and plopped right down next to him as soon as he settled back onto the couch, making his heart race a bit. She had no idea how much her simple acts of affection meant to him. Or maybe she did. “Sometimes this family is so messed up. At least you and your dad can _talk_ about your mom.”

“It’s not always that easy for us either, trust me.” He admitted, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

His eyes found her face again, and she wasn’t crying anymore. She still looked slightly forlorn, but he could tell that his arrival was helping. He found himself staring at the cranberry flush of her cheeks until she looked up and caught him.

And time stopped. It was one of those moments. When he could _swear_ she was reading his mind, and he was reading hers, and they were both thinking the same thing. Her lips were _so close_ . And she smelled _so good_. But then, like every other time, the moment passed.

“Are you gonna go see Henry tonight?” She asked innocently, changing the subject as if nothing happened.

Barry shook his head, sluggish to move on from it as quickly as she had. “Maybe tomorrow. Just getting here felt like it took forever.”

He was slapped in the chest by a tiny brown hand.

“It’s your fault for going to school so far away, mister _‘I’m Barry Allen, world’s biggest science fanboy, and I’m gonna study at the top forensic science university in the country, nerd-talk, nerd-talk, nerd-talk!’_ ”

Barry barked with boyish laughter, smiling so wide his cheeks hurt at Iris’s impression of him. “Whatever, freshman. What’s your major, again?”

“Harsh! I’m closing in on something, thank you very much.” She hit him again and stuck out her tongue.

He winced but forgave her, still smiling. The suggestion fell out of his mouth before he could stop it, he was so happy and relieved just to be around her: “You wanna order a pizza and put on a movie?”

She raised her eyebrows expectantly, knowing the drill. “Musical?”

“Yep. Your choice this time, since I’m way nicer than you.”

“The Whiz!”

“Oh nooo...” Barry rolled his eyes, regretting giving her first choice. Watching _The Whiz_ usually had him suffering through his best friend’s insistence on singing almost every song. He loved musicals, and he loved _her_ , so much, but her singing was awful. Iris knew he hated it, so she made it extra painful for him.

“Nope, you said _my_ choice Barry Allen, and you have to do whatever I want, ‘cause I’m sad.” Iris gave him a _stunning_ little pout and he caved immediately.

“Okay, okay, fine. But I want pepperoni, olives _and_ jalapenos.”

“Since you’re paying for it, that’s a deal.” Her eyes were now sparkling as she smiled up at him.

Another of those moments, when all he wanted to do was lean down a few inches and finally see what her lips felt like against his.

Instead, she hopped up from the couch to go get the menu off the fridge in the kitchen. Barry was pleasantly surprised when she paused mid-step and turned back, leaned over and hugged him again, nuzzling her nose against his freckled neck.

“I missed you, Snuggle Bear. I’m glad you’re home.”

“I missed you too.” He scoffed, trying to project annoyance with the old nickname she’d given him in junior high that used to mortify and delight him all at once. “Although calling me Snuggle Bear was _not_ part of this deal.”

“Too late! Change into your jams, you’re my human pillow tonight, suckerrr!”

She released him and he watched her go, reveling in the cozy, fragrant breeze she tossed his way as she went. It hadn’t been quite the homecoming he was expecting, and he had been looking forward to seeing Joe, but Barry was settling into hopeful excitement for the way the evening was shaping up.

He would gladly suffer through terrible singing and that embarrassing nickname if it meant he’d get to snuggle with Iris on the couch for a few uninterrupted hours.

That moment between them just now had ignited his hope again. Maybe this was the year they’d finally start to do more than snuggle.


	4. The Christmas Wish, p2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As for chapter four...  
> Well, you'll see. I may add other parts to this at some point. I hope you like.

 

_**...part two...** _

 

 

It was going on twelve in the morning.

They were laying together under her favorite blanket on the couch.

The leftover pizza was in the oven, waiting for Joe. There was no more giant chocolate chip cookie left, though. The credits to _Meet Me In St. Louis_ were coming to an end.

The house was still, except for the steady rise and fall of Iris’s breathing, Barry’s thundering heart, and the flickering of the credits on the flat screen across from the couch.

She was tucked into his side, laying on her back gazing up at him, her downy curls pressed into his arm. He pulled her closer, almost as an involuntary reflex for the way she was looking at him.

The voice in his head was saying _kiss her_. Demanding it of him with breathless urgency.

This was _the_ moment. It had been building between them all night.

For the first couple of hours, they were laughing and singing and making a racket together while they watched _The Whiz_. Iris forgot all about her sadness over her mother’s fading memory as they rattled off stories about their semesters. Her struggle to pick a major, his lack of a social life. She laughed until she cried at his Michael Jackson Scarecrow impression, covering her huge smile with her hands while he flopped his body all around solely for her entertainment.

He stuck his fingers in his ears and gazed at her with cringy adoration while she screeched her way through all of Diana Ross’s songs. “How are you so bad at this?” He teased her, dodging the deadly swing of a pillow. She wrinkled her nose at him when he started to geek out explaining something he was studying while they shared the big cookie. “You’re lucky you’re so cute, Barry, because I don’t understand half the stuff you’re talking about.”

She watched him blush. He watched her do everything. And as the night went on they got more cozy, ignoring the T.V. to talk quietly about other stuff. Serious stuff, like how much they both missed their mothers. What Iris would say to her uncle whenever she worked up the courage one day. Why Barry’s mother loved musicals so much, and how close he felt to her when he watched them.

Joe called a couple of times to check on them and update them. Still stuck, hopefully calling it a night soon. Maybe some paperwork. Save him some pizza. Same deal as usual, the holidays being no exception.

Barry got the feeling the whole stakeout (or was it paperwork?) thing was less of an emergency and more of an excuse to avoid being confronted by Iris about Francine. Still, he couldn’t complain. Being alone with Iris was the single best way he could think of to start the holidays, hands down.

The space between them on the couch got smaller and smaller, and the house got darker and darker, and quieter and quieter. They whispered rather than talked. The closer they got, the harder it was for him to pay attention to the movie, his eyes only for her. When she got tired, Iris made good on her threat to use him as her pillow and he didn’t mind being her Snuggle Bear for the night at all. He just wished he could really _hold_ her. Burrow as deeply as possible inside her warm, soothing orbit and breathe her in. Kiss her skin. Taste her lips. Get as lost in her in real life as he did in his constant fantasies of her.

The night was slipping away. All he could do was pretend to watch the movie and savor every minute he could with her until Joe got home or she fell asleep. Sooner than he would’ve liked, the last scene of the movie was playing out. He was secretly dreading the moment she would wriggle out of his arms and head off to bed, when she unexpectedly turned over on her back to talk.

“What’s your Christmas wish?” Iris asked him softly, making herself comfortable in his personal space.

Barry tried not to get too excited when he felt her legs fold easily over his, her backside sliding across his sturdy thighs. He forced himself to think about her question. “You know you’re not supposed to say a wish out loud, right?”

She rolled her eyes and licked her lips, drawing his gaze down to them. “Come on, Bear, humor me.” Her gorgeous smile spread, lighting up the semi-dark. “I’ll bet we have the same one.”

His heart skipped a beat. Did she know what she was saying? If only they _did_ have the same one.

“I wish for our moms back and my dad out of prison.” He shrugged. It wasn’t a lie. Though there was something else he wished for, with all his heart. Especially right now, with her so close and it being just the two of them.

Iris’s smile softened and she reached up to touch his face, her thumb stroking his cheek. “Oh, Barry...”

“Your turn.” He just wanted to keep her awake, talking to him, and touching him.

“Well, actually, I have _two_.” Barry laughed. Of course she did. “And I was right. I wish that for us, too.”

He smiled down at her and their eyes locked on each other’s. Barry felt so much tenderness for her, he knew there was no way he was hiding it. She remembered how close they got last year, she had to. They were that close again, and slowly inching closer. Her hand traveled from his cheek to his neck and he tentatively allowed his to make the journey across her torso to rest on her hip.

“What’s the other one?” He stroked the small bit of exposed skin above her pelvis with his thumb.

Iris’s large brown eyes flickered to Barry’s lips underneath her lashes. For a second, she looked shy, like she was embarrassed to admit it.

“I wish my best friend would give me a kiss…” she breathed.

The world stopped and Barry’s heart started thumping wildly. He could hardly believe his ears. He lost his smile, his green eyes drilling down into hers, searching for the truth. She was gazing at him with a mixture of smoldering desire and sweet, beguiling self-consciousness. She wasn’t teasing him. She meant it. “Iris...”

“Shh, lemme talk, okay?” Suddenly her arms were around his neck, and she was drawing him closer, pulling him deeper into their secret little world. He was still in disbelief as she began to confess to him in a hushed, yet assertive voice. “It scared me how much I missed you when you first went to Michigan, and now I can’t stop thinking about you. I thought about you in Italy, I thought about you all this semester. I wish you had been there with me to help me stand up to my uncle. You make everything better. You’re so sweet and cute and you’re my best friend. I just love being with you, Barry.”

Overwhelmed by her confession, Barry gazed down at her in awe, his entire body heating to his core, his pajama pants feeling very snug suddenly. She felt like a warm, delicate treasure trapped in his embrace, full of such alluring energy. She was saying she missed him, thought about him, loved being with him...wanted him to kiss her.

“I always think about you, Iris. I _always_ want to be with you.” He leaned in and nuzzled her nose, bringing their lips close. “As...as more than your best friend. _A lot_ more.”

 _Tell her you’re in love with her, dude,_ **_tell her!_ ** _Tell her how you’ve dreamt about this a thousand times and how your personal heaven is the smell of her hair._ **_No_ ** _, that’s creepy, just shut up and kiss her!_

“Kiss me, Barry.”

Barry swallowed hard, closed his eyes, and jumped off a cliff.

Her lips were so pillow soft, warm and exquisite. As soon as he got his first taste, Barry was lost, breathing through his nostrils as he went for another kiss, and another, and another. Iris clung to him, her petite body unfolding beneath his long, wiry one, wrapping her legs around him to get him closer. Wow, wow, _wow_ , this was _finally_ happening. She ran her hands through his hair, sending shivers down his spine. Barry couldn’t stop himself from grinding into her, unable to resist her tantalizing gravitational pull as he planted hot kisses along her satiny cheeks, neck, and collarbone.

Then he kissed his way back up again to taste her mouth some more in a stunned, happy daze. _Mmmm, Iris._ The kindest girl he’d ever met, smelling like a Christmas treat, with a face like an angel crowned in thick spools of mahogany silk.

She trailed electricity across his skin wherever she touched, having slipped one of her hands under his tee shirt. She seemed to want him closer and closer. He obliged her, focused solely on making up for years of yearning. Always wanting to touch, but rarely giving in. Finding ways to, and still being unsatisfied.

Now their hands roamed as their at first slow, exploratory petting quickly turned into urgent groping.

Barry turned his brain off and savored the feel of her soft skin, her tongue in his mouth, her pleasant voice moaning for him. He became so aroused by just her writhing around beneath him that she gasped when his by now very noticeable erection poked insistently into her supple bottom.

“Sorry.” He pulled back to gaze at her reverently, his hair sticking up, his lips flushed. “You’re just...you’re so beautiful.” _And so damn sexy._ _Kissing you is a dream come true_ , he thought but didn’t say.

“Don’t be sorry. I like it.” Iris grinned at him, leaning up to kiss the freckles on his neck. He shivered, palming her thighs in response. “I’m not a virgin, you know. You can touch me, Barry. I _want_ you to.”

 _Oh god._ He wasn’t a virgin, either, but this was different. This was Iris. Her wanting him this way was thrusting his lust-filled brain (not to mention his body) into overdrive. He decided to just go with it.

He nodded slowly, already leaning in for more, until his mouth was on hers again.

His hands followed a path along her luscious skin that he’d fantasized about taking countless times. Down her thighs, into her little pajama shorts, squeezing her incredibly sexy ass indulgently. Barry groaned, pulling her bottom lip between his, utterly _gone_. Iris squeezed his narrow waist between her legs, his eager erection pushing hard and heavy along her center. He once again slipped into a blissful trance as he planted a trail of kisses along her neck, moving one of his hands from her bountiful bottom and snaking it downward toward her sex. Iris arched her back with needy excitement, spreading her legs wider to give him more access.

He found her panties in the dark and slowly hooked them to the side. Iris held her breath and tugged his hair when he slid one, then two of his fingers along her tender, wet center. His hard-on stretched and stiffened when he registered how slick and hot she was. The home screen from the DVD cast a hollow pink light across them as Barry dared to drive two of his fingers inside her with a soft push of breath against her neck.

“Ohhh... _Barry_ .. _!_ ” She whimpered, letting go of his hair to grab at his taught forearm, clutching at him as her body tensed and her hips rolled into his slow thrusts.

He gradually picked up speed, his long digits sinking deeper every time, until they felt like they were submerged in a hot honeycomb full of her nectar. She started to tremble and claw at him when he switched tack to rub her swollen little button with the pad of his thumb.

“Yes, just like that, Barry, _yeess_ ... _mmm!_ ”

He couldn’t help himself -- he lifted his head from her thicket of silky curls to watch her gorgeous face, fraught with ecstasy, while he fingered her on the couch.

She was so tight and wet. So slick and sexy bouncing against him, licking her lips and pouting for more. Barry found steamy, obscene thoughts tumbling through his mind as his bone-stiff length leaked all over him, still trapped inside his pajama pants, twitching and throbbing with need. _Holy shit_ he couldn’t believe this was happening. _Damn_ she was so beautiful and it felt so good just fingering her that he wanted to take off his pajamas and push inside of her _so badly_. He was content to just stare at her, however, beside himself with the feel of her all over his fingers and the angelic vision of her in his arms.

Suddenly she was coming, her walls pulsing around and pulling at his fingers. He stared at her face, mesmerized as glowing waves of unabashed pleasure crashed into her over and over.

Iris finally stilled, taking deep, slow breaths. She opened her eyes to gaze up at him lethargically, before pulling him close again and kissing him tenderly. “Now it’s my turn…” She whispered against his mouth, licking his chin. He pulled his hand from her sex to grab her ass and buck into her with his pelvis, yearning for her.

In response, she slid her hand down his chest, under his tee shirt, and into his pants. Just as she wrapped her fingers around his throbbing erection, causing him to involuntarily bite down on her lip, they heard the _buzz, buzz, buzz_ of Barry’s cell phone on the coffee table. They froze, and the _buzz, buzz,_ ** _buuuzzzz_** persisted. Panting, Barry let go of Iris’s mouth, pressing his forehead to hers. He really, really, really wanted her to stroke him... _buzz, buzz, buzz_...he looked over at the table, down at his cell phone.

It was Joe.

Shit, shit, shit. He was probably on his way home.

They both stared at the phone until the call passed, registering as missed. Barry sat frozen, his heart pounding, waiting, and then a few seconds later he got a series of texts.

_Good, you’re getting some rest_

_On my way home_

_There better be pizza_

_Love you, see you in morn_

Iris kissed his neck, releasing her hold on the now fading hardness in his pajamas, the mood draining from them both. Barry swallowed down his intense need, knowing that they had maybe twenty minutes before Joe would walk through the door.

He would love nothing more than to keep going with Iris, and do things with her that he’d been thinking about doing with her since he hit puberty. But the thought of Joe catching them was enough to stall his labido.

They turned to breathe each other in, sitting glued together like magnets in the dark.

This had been the most amazing experience Barry could’ve hoped for when he got on the train home this morning. His fantasies had been nothing compared to this, and he didn’t want it to be be over.

They didn't have a lot of time. But when could he ask for more? What would Joe think when they told him? What if Iris thought about it and changed her mind? Now that this had happened, he didn’t know if he was capable of going back to the way things were. Not without it knocking the wind out of him.

“We should clean up before he gets back.” She finally spoke, just as his mind began to reel with anxious _‘what ifs’_. She shook her head against his, gripping his neck beseechingly. “I don’t want this to stop, Barry.”

“Me either. ” He huffed excitedly, his fingers grasping at her flesh. “But what are we gonna tell --?”

“Shh, let’s not worry about that tonight, okay?” She kissed his lips and neck again sweetly, and he gave in. His heart was singing at the knowledge that she wanted to keep doing what they’d done tonight. She wanted _more_ , just like he did. “I promise you, I wanna continue where we left off, but right now we gotta get up!”

She kissed him several more times, laughing at his dazed, happy expression. Finally he snapped out of it, shaking off the potent drug of the last few minutes of what had already been an amazing night.

They cleaned up in a hurry. Barry couldn’t help stealing looks at her while they straightened everything up (including themselves) and turned everything off.

Then they were climbing up the stairs, and all Barry wanted to do was reach out and touch her smooth, bare legs. They stopped in the middle of the hall, between their two bedrooms, and he bumped into her from behind, quite on purpose. Iris immediately turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck, lifting herself up on her tiptoes to kiss him passionately. Barry pulled her against him with one arm hooked around her small waist, tasting her lips over and over again.

He walked with her glued to him until they hit the wall. Slowly, reluctantly, he dragged his lips away from hers, his eyes opening as they pulled apart to look at each other in the dark. She smiled softly.

“Goodnight, Barry…”

“Goodnight, Iris.”

He released her and stepped away, and they watched each other back up to their own rooms. They lingered in their doorways, staring at each other with heated expressions. Longing, fear, and excitement.

Finally, with a cute little sigh, Iris stepped all the way into her room and gently closed the door.

Barry watched after her for some seconds more, still in awe of the night they’d had. Finally, he went into his room and closed the door, dragging himself to his bed and flopping down onto it, now semi-hard again.

All he could think about was Iris.

He could smell her on his fingers.

He could not wait for it to be tomorrow. And the next day. And the next after that.

His mind buzzed with thoughts about how he could get her alone again and again for the next two weeks. When and how they would tell Joe. How excited he already was to tell his father. Maybe they could go visit him together, hand in hand. _Iris_ wanted to be with him! He was in the middle of an ecstatic geek attack when his cell phone buzzed again in his hand. He forgot he was holding it.

Looking down at it, he grinned from ear to ear to see that it was Iris calling from her bedroom.

Barry answered it, rolling over onto his back, smiling like a dork at the ceiling.

“Is it tomorrow yet?” Her soft voice sounded out in his ear, and they both laughed quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm rewatching "Welcome to Earth-2". I'd like to see what I can come up with for CSI Allen and Detective West.


	5. The Christmas Wish, p3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These two lovebirds can hardly wait until the break of dawn. They take advantage of Joe's morning routine to finish what they started on the couch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will get to our Earth 2 baes in a later chapter. As Iris says, I couldn’t wait any longer to update this. I felt inspired, so here we go.

_**...part three...** _

 

 

It was a little past six in the morning. Iris was sleepy but awake. She stood watching Barry from her customary spot in his doorway, her rumpled, wavy mahogany tresses hanging over her shoulder. She could never resist this.

The weak beginnings of sunrise twinkled in through his open blinds, reaching for him as he slept sprawled on his back in his tee shirt and boxers. The light crept toward his pillow, straining across his steadily peaking and plateauing chest, and up to kiss his soft pink lips where it couldn’t yet go any further.

He looked so beautiful in this state. His long lashes brushing his cheeks, his expression completely relaxed, one hand cradling his cell phone to his heart. His blanket was bunched up around his waist, one leg kicked out of it, the other all wrapped up inside it. He must’ve been exhausted after traveling all day yesterday and staying up with her so late. But he didn’t complain or waver once.

They had talked all night, only pausing to pretend sleep when her dad got home. Funnily enough (and to her quiet disappointment), though Joe bypassed the leftover pizza to head straight to his bed, they didn’t talk about the _one_ thing that was so new and thrilling between them. The thing that filled her stomach with heated butterflies whenever Barry looked at her these days.

Instead they talked like the best friends they were, and it reassured them both that they still could be. School some more. What her little cousin was like. What Joe would make for Christmas dinner. She tried to pry hints about his present for her this year out of him. He wouldn’t budge on that, but he did let her in on what he was planning for Joe and Henry. When neither of them could fight off sleep any longer, the silence grew tense with the unspoken memory of their last moments on the couch downstairs.

Finally, his voice so hopeful that Iris found herself pining for his lips, Barry whispered: “So...do I get to kiss you again?”

“ _Yes, silly._ ” She answered without hesitation. “I wanna kiss you right now, but not with dad down the hall.”

They both silently shuddered at the knowledge that Joe practically slept with his eyes open.

“No, yeah, you’re right.” He quickly agreed with her. “Hey, what are we gonna tell him, though? He won’t get mad...will he?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. He didn’t exactly approve of me going out there to see mom’s brother. He thinks it’s a waste of time and I’ll only end up getting hurt.” She scoffed. “I don’t want him to be right.”

“Iris, you can’t blame him for not wanting to see you hurt. But lying to him is gonna make it worse, don’t you think?” Barry was torn.

“It's not _lying_ , it's just not telling. He doesn’t need to know everything we do. I want to keep this between us for now, okay?” She had admitted. “Dad loves us but he’ll want to give us all kinds of rules and I don’t feel like dealing with that. Not for Christmas. Not yet. Please, Bear?”

“Okay.” He still sounded uncertain (thanks to Joe’s parenting, sometimes Barry actually believed he had eyes in the back of his head), but gave in to her request. “Our secret.”

“Yeah. Our secret. Just for now. Thank you.”  She wanted to add that she loved him, but she didn’t know how it would sound now that there was so much more to it for her than the bond of friendship.

“Sweet dreams, Iris. I…” Barry paused, every second feeling like forever. There was a smile in his voice when he spoke next. “I can’t wait to spend this Christmas with you.”

Hearing the tenderness and excitement in his voice made Iris breathless, rousing those butterflies again. She was so touched, she could only manage to give him a small, soft _‘me either...night, Bear’_.

Iris fell asleep to brand new, startlingly passionate fantasies of Barry. She woke to the sound of her dad leaving the house at the break of a pale, wintery dawn. She slipped out of bed and crept across the hall to Barry’s door, seeking out his warmth. As soon as she saw him from his doorway, sound asleep in the peaceful quiet, she couldn’t help pausing to watch him.

Ever since fate smooshed them together in this cozy brown house, Iris frequently found herself perched in this very spot while Barry slept. Worrying about him; watching over him; admiring his innocence, his goodness, his bravery.  The sweet, happy little boy she grew up with had been steadily changing into a much bigger, somehow even sweeter young man before her eyes. At nineteen, his long, heavy body nearly took up the length of the bed these days.

When he left for college the first time, she finally admitted to herself that without realizing it, she had fallen in love with him. She really, really missed him. They would talk. They would text. But still...there was a large, Barry-sized hole in her life. She yearned for him all the time, to her utter, eye-opening surprise. And now that he was here again, it was worse. Looking into his eyes only confirmed what she’d been feeling while he was gone. She wanted to see those beautiful green galaxies burning for her the way they had last night again. The way they always had, now that she could see his heart in everything he did.

Iris closed the door gently and walked deeper into his room, her petite frame nearly dwarfed by the size of everything in here -- his bed, his desk, his gigantic floor-length mirror. She hopped over his floppy, timeworn Chuck Taylors, then the duffle bag that looked like it exploded with clothes all over the floor last night.

Finally, she stood next to his bed, where his free hand had fallen to the edge. His long fingers grazed her leg, practically causing a spark the moment they touched. Iris stared at them, heat igniting inside her as she remembered what they felt like sliding in and out of her slick, yearning sex while he kissed her.

“Bear?” Iris whispered, lifting her knee to nudge his knuckles. His entire body twitched, his other hand tightening around his cell phone. Iris rubbed her knee against his warm fingers a second time, throbbing for him. “ _Barry._ ”

Barry finally came alive, blinking up at her with surprise, instinctively sliding his fingers across her smooth skin to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. The sunlight finally found the lush viridescence of his eyes as he registered that she was really standing in his room. “Iris? Hey...”

“It’s tomorrow.” She breathed, licking her lips as she watched the intense hope on his handsome face begin to smolder. His stroking of her skin turned into a firm grip as he pulled her toward him by the back of her thigh. Iris fell into his bed, never taking her eyes from his as he tossed his dead cell phone somewhere in his sea of bedding and pulled her under with him. They were kissing and joining within seconds, Barry’s lean, sturdy body finding its way over hers as she wrapped her legs around his narrow waist. “I couldn’t wait, Bear,” she purred breathlessly before he attacked her with more hungry kisses.

“Where’s Joe?” Barry’s voice sounded from somewhere deep in his throat as he indulged in taste after taste of her sweet, warm lips.

“Running.” Iris wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him closer and kiss him much more deeply.

Before she could, Barry slowly peeled his lips from hers, leaning back to look into her eyes as he registered what this meant. Joe liked to take his time, going around their neighborhood twice, slowly, so he could think. They would be alone for at least another forty minutes. There was no way either of them could stand to wait for another opportunity like this.

Iris pulled him down to her, breathing in his scent, latching onto his hot pink lips. Barry groaned and they were groping again, in a trance together, dazed with feverish desire for each other. The friction and body heat was going to their heads, making Iris ache between her legs while his need for her grew steadily more unyielding inside his boxers. His hands explored her, covering her thighs and ass, clutching at her hips.

She eagerly reached down between them, her small hand finding him poking out from the waistband of his shorts, turgid and already leaking. “ _Mrghm…!_ ” he grunted, grinding himself into her hand as she began to massage him.

Feeling Barry hard and pulsing in her hand swept Iris up in a whirlwind of need so intense she couldn’t take it anymore. “Please, Barry, hurry...” She panted, kissing his warm neck.

To her frustration, he pulled back again to catch his breath, looking as disheveled and enraptured as he had on the couch last night. And also very contrite.

“Shit. I don’t have any condoms.” He whispered against her lips, his eyes zeroing in on her face beneath the pale, steadily brightening sun rays.

“For real?” Iris exhaled in exasperation, still kissing him, still squirming with need for him.

“I know, I’m sorry.” He shook his head and huffed dejectedly at her. The seconds ticked by, stealing their alone time. Barry’s lashes dropped to half-mast as he kissed her lips as though savoring a morsel. Always her problem solver, he already had a solution. “Lay back, okay?”

Electricity tunneled through her underneath his gaze as he asked permission to make her come again. He looked hungry, or thirsty, or both. He was totally focused on her, everything he used to try to hide from her now on full display. She had always seen glimpses of it, but shied away from stopping to really take it in. Iris slowly let go of him and did what he asked, laying back and relaxing fully against his pillow.

Propping himself up on his elbow, he pulled one strap of her tank top down, then the other. He tugged on the fabric, exposing her. His eyes roamed all over her, lighting a path along the curves and valleys of her deep brown skin. Her breathing deepened, her naked breasts aching for the pursed red lips hovering just above them in the warm, secluded tent of his bed covers.

Barry leaned forward and breathed on her taut, erect nipple before licking it into his mouth with a soft sigh. Iris’s already wet sex tensed and her back arched into his face as he swirled his tongue around and around her sensitive breast in slow, concentrated repetition. He leaked onto her stomach while she throbbed and gyrated her barely covered wetness against his strong thigh. Barry switched back and forth between pillowy brown breasts. He teased her, causing static to build and attack her from head to toe, holding her tightly while sucking hard on one sensitive, highly stimulated peak after the other.

Barry’s long fingers languidly massaged one breast, his others moving to grip her firmly by the hip while his hot lips began to move downward. She hissed and covered the big, warm hand massaging her breast with her smaller one while he planted slow, soft kisses along her hypersensitive skin. He lit a path down her fluttering torso, around her navel, along her pelvic bone. She was drowning in sensation as her mind struggled to reconcile the reality of her best friend, the guy who knew almost everything about her, making her ache with need this way.

“I dream about this.” He whispered, kissing her, nuzzling her with his nose. “What you smell like.” He inhaled, causing her to roll her hips toward his face. “What you _taste_ like.”

Her legs fell open more as Barry’s broad shoulders came to rest beneath them, so wet and wound up for him. His lips were getting closer, steadily kissing a hot, electrified path toward her sex.

He was pulling her panties down with one hand, now, the other still massaging her chest. He kissed her all over her smooth hips and the valley as she helped him shimmy the thin, soaked little things off of her. Once they were lost in the sheets, Barry spread her legs again and Iris laced her fingers into his hair, so eager she was pearly-wet and throbbing, her scent coating the air around them. Finally, Barry lowered his head and nuzzled his face into her sex, opening his mouth to lick her deeply, slowly, reverently. Her hips moved in time to the beat of his concentrated tongue strokes and he exhaled her name,“ _Iris..._ ”

Then he was swirling his tongue around and around her clit, dipping it inside her again and again, his eyes shut tight as he worked. Iris wanted to cry, it felt so good. “Baarrrryeee…!” she whimpered, only able to hold onto his soft hair and ride his face while he feasted on her.

Barry let go of her tingling breast and pulled her closer to the parting of his angular jaw, now totally lost, himself. Iris held his head, her entire being consumed with his tongue on her clit and his fingers digging into the thick of her thighs. “Fingers…! I want your f-fingers inside me!” She panted.

He nodded, still tasting her, and inserted one, then another -- stroking her now with both. Iris looked down, biting her lip, grinding against him, to see his long lashes giving her butterfly kisses while his big hand held her open and his flushed lips remained clamped around her tender folds. The sight sent a thrill through her, and Iris moaned deeply, letting her head fall back against his pillow in ecstasy. _She was going to come._ She was on the edge. She was falling…

“Ohmygod, Bear...ohmygod…!” Iris mewled nonsensically, holding him, riding him, wet and hot and aching for him.

Barry didn’t waver, sucking on her clit repeatedly like he was trying to save a melting ice cream cone, fucking her faster and harder with his fingers. He kept it up tirelessly until Iris melted all over his lips and chin, reduced to a shuddering, gyrating mess in his arms. He held her until she relaxed with a heavy sigh.

She finally floated back down to his quiet, cluttered room, catching her breath while he lay feather-light kisses all over her wet thighs and quivering sex. Their eyes met. His dilated pupils and the intense adoration on his face was enough to get Iris hot and bothered again. She felt his erection, hard and heavy, poking at her as she pulled him up to her by his shirt. “C'mere, Barry…”

He followed willingly. They made out fiercely, their tongues dancing and their hands roaming while the neighborhood birds announced the chilly dawn. The house was a black hole except for the two young lovers exploring each other in Barry’s messy, cavernous bedroom.

Iris rolled them over so that she was in control, kissing his neck, chin and lips sweetly. Barry’s eyes closed in anticipation for the feel of her hand snaking down into his boxers to grasp his aching length. They forgot about time. About the day awaiting them. Irish stared at him in her hand, fascinated by how beautiful he was from head to toe as she began to coax him toward the mind-numbing pleasure he’d just given her. He hissed and jerked into her palm, a thick trail of pearly precum lubricating him for her as she worked him slowly. She felt his arm hook around her, holding her close, his other hand guiding hers to stroke him faster, tighter. “Urgmm...ugh...shit, Iris...I-I’m not gonna l-last much…!”

“Shhh, come for me, it’s okay.” Iris hushed him, kissing him heatedly, stroking him passionately, watching the reluctant ecstasy cascade across his gorgeous face every time his swollen pink head slipped past her closed palm. Suddenly his heavy, lanky body tensed and he leaned over to clamp down onto her plush lips with his, his nostrils flaring as he erupted into her hand.

They rested their foreheads together, kissing tenderly until Barry finally went boneless beneath her.

“ _Oh man._ ” She found herself grinning at the look of dazed happiness on his face. “All the times I imagined this...it was never this...” He seemed at a loss for words, but Iris knew exactly what he meant. Holding him in her hand had her yearning for more. He was big _everywhere_ , and Iris didn’t think she could stop now until she felt him deep inside.

He caught her staring at him and his smile disappeared as she leaned in to kiss him, still feeling him twitching in her hand.

“I shouldn’t be in here when dad gets back…” she whispered against his warm, damp lips, his skin still scented with her nectar.

“Don’t go yet.” He was pulling her into him, encircling her tighter with one strong arm. “Please?”

“I shouldn’t stay, Barry.” Neither of them moved to clean up or separate. They kissed and lingered instead. “Tonight? We can sneak out after dinner…?”

“Okay.” He ground his hips, jerking and pulsing in her sticky palm. Iris exhaled, longing for condoms. “Mmm, okay...”

Finally, they pulled away, and Barry cleaned them up with one of the shirts from his exploded gym bag. He tossed it behind the hamper across the room and provided Iris with a pair of his boxers, kissing her from the moment she slipped them on to the moment she stepped out into the hall. “Tonight?” He triple checked, still kissing her, pulling her against him one last time in his doorway.

One ear listening out for the turn of her dad’s keys in the lock downstairs, Iris nodded against his lips. “Tonight. After dinner, promise. _Condoms_ , Barry.”

"Uh, yeah...condoms. Okay. Great. Tonight, then." Barry’s eyes were alight with awed excitement, his skin flushed as she pulled out of his arms. She backed away, wanting to jump back into his bed, feeling all tingly with excitement. In that moment, she wanted to tell him that she was so in love with him, truly, but she was content to let him see plainly that she was looking forward to tonight as much as he was.

“Okay, go get showered and let’s make breakfast so he’ll be distracted by the food when he gets back.”

Barry cleared his throat and straightened his slack-jawed demeanor. Nodding dutifully, he jumped into action. “Right. Shower. Biscuits. Distract Joe. Fumigate my room. Piece of cake. What could possibly go wrong?”

She rolled her eyes at his dramatics, watching him go. She loved him, she loved him, _she loved him._ It was going to be an amazing Christmas.


	6. Twisted, p1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (SPOILER?!) Iris becoming a speedster inspired me tremendously, but I went in a darker direction. I’m a sucker for angst. If you feel like you can handle Savitar, twisted Speedster!Iris and broken Flash then keep reading. AU: a parallel timeline, on a different Earth, under different circumstances, because why not? Basically, it makes about as much sense as the TV Savitar/Future Flash storyline, heh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry, I know you're waiting for more Christmas Wish and that Earth-2 smut I promised, and it'll be here faster than you think. Had to get this out, it was keeping me up at night.

**_...part one..._ **

 

 _“Okay, you ready for this? If the vibes are right, he’ll be headed for Infantino about now. He knows you’re coming. Turn that thing on as soon as you get there. Just_ **_remember_ ** _, Barry,”_ Cisco’s warning crackled through Barry’s earpiece as he ran toward the breach they’d opened, _“Whoever else you see...”_

“It’s just a reflection. I know the drill,” came his low, somber reply as he flew past buildings, cars, people and trees faster than light.

He also knew what his loyal friend was really getting at; they didn’t need to say it aloud. If he saw Iris, she wouldn’t be _his_. He couldn’t lose sight of his purpose, his only reason for living these days. Stopping the enemy who took the love of his life from him forever.

 _“That’s right. Get in there, get Savitar, and get your skinny scarlet butt back home, capisce?”_ Cisco was joking, but Barry heard the fear in his voice. Barry _had_ to win this, and he only had a small window of time to do it. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to come back. _“Last stand, dude. Setting my clock now. Good luck.”_

“Copy that. Back in a flash...” That familiar jolt of power propelled him forward and _The Flash_ smirked, running through the breach to Earth-111, where they had finally tracked down Savitar.

That rare moment of levity between them lasted but a second as his super speed catapulted him between worlds until he came sliding to a forceful stop near Infantino Street on a different Earth from his own. He could already feel the change in frequency, now a pro at it.

Speed bolts sparked and finally faded into the crisp night air as Flash tapped on the modified device affixed to his earpiece emblem, turning it on as Cisco instructed.

He had eight minutes.

He took a few cautious steps forward. He was far, far from home, but this Earth looked almost identical to his. Perhaps darker, grayer, with deeper shadows and less saturated everything. But unmistakably a near-perfect mirror of the Central City he grew up in. All its familiar calling cards were there along the skyline, around every corner, lining every block his eyes beseeched. No wonder his time remnant self chose this Earth to flee to for their last stand. Barry might have done the same, if the roles were reversed.

Every step he took since that horrible night on this street a hundred and ten Earths from here was burdened by the weight of relentless grief, only tempered by grim determination.

Iris West’s death had triggered an enormous singularity inside Barry Allen that threatened to consume him every moment of every day. The only reason it hadn’t yet was because he hadn’t stopped running in order to let it. If only there was a way for him to outrun the gut wrenching emptiness for good. There wasn’t. So the scarlet speedster had to learn to focus through the pain. He ran to hunt now, chasing Savitar across time and finally, out of both their desperation, the multiverse. He wouldn’t (he _couldn't_ ) stop until Savitar was erased from existence.

Four years. Four agonizing, nearly hopeless years since Savitar took Iris; of running, fighting, and triumphing only to be knocked down again. After a long series of battles in which he replicated himself one too many times, Flash had managed to weaken Savitar and send him fleeing to this Earth. Now he finally had the tools, the help, and the bitter, relentless will to see it done.

He was gonna _win_. For Iris.

 _Focus, Flash,_ Barry gnashed his teeth at himself, his green eyes narrowed; keeping on alert. The hardened superhero stalked toward the bus stop and beyond it, the small park in front of the public library on Infantino. On this Earth it was a fountain, not a library.

The statue at the center of the large, beautifully lit structure was of someone Barry didn’t recognize. He stood tall, appearing to be either naked or so fused with whatever he was wearing that it was less clothing and more of an aura. What looked like either long, tattered robes or thick swirls of wind had been carved out of him on all sides, rising into the air. His expression was caught somewhere between all-seeing benevolence and terrifying detachment.

He was posed as a deity of some sort, Barry realized. He couldn’t think about it too long. As soon as he reached the walkway toward the steps leading to the fountain, he felt a disturbance in the speed force that raised the hairs on his arms and neck inside his suit.

A speedster was approaching.

“I know you’re here…” Barry uttered, his voice thick with loathing. The speed force oscillated inside him as he searched the area for any hint of movement. “ _Come on._ Let’s get this over with.”

A flash of red lightning burned through the air at superspeed, and Barry was suddenly confronted with his own, twisted face, glaring back at him from a few feet away. It was Savitar.

No electrified metal suit this time. Just the uniform of black, including the shock of disheveled hair spilling over his forehead. The coldly gleaming black and white eyes. The shredded, pale scar tissue covering the right side, stitched together with the smooth left by a crooked, evil grin. His presence filled the air with the smell of smoke and the superhuman discharge of nitric oxide.

A gnarled, bitter, insane version of Barry Allen; a murderous time remnant who refused to die. Not as frightening as he was the first time they met, but a formidable threat nonetheless.

“Hm...” Savitar tilted his head, distantly amused by his own predictable tenacity. “Of all the Earths in aaallll the multiverse, how did you manage to track me _here_ , Flash?” He narrowed his icy black and white eyes, scrutinizing his nemesis carefully. “Last I remember, Frost took your breacher’s hands…” he shrugged, pacing slowly. Barry paced with him. They were warped mirror reflections of each other. “Right around the time I was stabbing your future wife to death.”

Barry’s entire body tensed with revulsion, listening to his dark twin’s cold voice. He wanted to snuff it out for good. Savitar’s jagged sneer grew wider, instantly recognizing the murderous edge in the other speedster’s eyes.

“Yeah, well maybe your memory isn’t what it used to be.” Barry ground out with ferocious hatred. “Your speed isn’t either.” He shook his head, his jaw clenched hard. “You’ve been running too long. Your connection to the speed force is weakening. Your suit is destroyed...”

Barry’s confidence slowly began to rise as he took careful, measured steps toward Savitar up the path to the mirror version of the platform where he lost his everything.

“You wanted me desperate enough, so here I am. It doesn’t matter where you run. The past, the future. Across the multiverse. I’ll _always_ find you, whatever it takes. It’s over, Savitar.”

“Is it?” The insane, emotionless gleam in the other Barry’s eyes shined as he stopped pacing and faced his prematurely smug, now irrevocably broken former self in all that stupid red. “For which one of us, exactly? Iris is gone, Flash.” Savitar pointed at his former self. “And _you._ You’ve sacrificed too much, split yourself too many times. Just to defeat little old me.” His voice like a glacier in the arctic, he suddenly snarled at Barry with so much venom that he salivated in the grey moonlight: “ _Don’t you get it yet?_ _You’re closer to_ ** _being_** _me than you think._ ”

“No, I’m closer to _stopping_ you. That’s all that matters now.” Barry growled right back, clenching his fists. “And don’t you _ever_ say her name.”

Savitar crossed his arms, looking bored now. “You shouldn’t have chased me here, you know. Your plan will fail. All your plans fail.”

“Nah, that’s not it. Like I said, it’s your memory that’s failing.” Flash tapped the lightning bolt near his ear, now blinking blue to signify that it was transmitting. “As a matter of fact, I’m guessing you can’t remember _any_ of the last six months, can you?”

Savitar’s expression froze to stone. He didn’t answer, but Barry didn’t need him to.

Shockwaves of adrenaline and speed force energy coursed through him, and he was on a hair trigger, ready to fight Savitar to the death.

“You thought you’d run far enough to hide from me, but you didn’t. You thought what Killer Frost did to Vibe would keep me from finding you here, but it _didn’t_ .” He kept moving forward, glaring at his duplicate’s face as what he was saying began to sink in. “You can’t remember me tracking you here because I finally figured out how to get you out of my head.” He took a deep breath, every laborious step of their painstaking trap finally coming to fruition. “ _We_ did. The friends you tried to get me to abandon.”

Savitar rocked back on his boot heels, closing his eyes as his equally sharp mind put the pieces together. “The cerebral inhibitor. That little handless freak figured out how to modify it. And you had help, didn’t you? Let me guess...another _Wells._ ”  He cracked his neck in agitation.

Barry nodded, watching the anger quickening the pulse beneath Savitar’s pale skin. His mask of cold aloofness was very convincing, but Barry knew himself. The evil speedster was scared. Savitar was right -- the further he went to stop this madness, the closer he got to disappearing into the darkness. But without Iris, none of that mattered more than this moment. Vengeance. Finally.

Savitar’s arms remained crossed as he worked out that he hadn’t heard from or felt Barry in six months -- while he was distracting himself on this Earth -- because Cisco and Wells modified the cerebral inhibitor to block the formation of memory at will. The last Savitar remembered was the attempted use of Devoe to take his powers from him. That showdown had ended in the murder of yet another time remnant and the destruction of his suit.

“So...you had the nerve to chase me across all these parallel worlds...because you got your little gang back together. And you reopened one of Zoom's breaches, didn't you? The ones you swore never to mess with again.” Savitar laughed. He was angry, oh no doubt about that, murderously so. But he was truly amused. There were truly no lengths Barry wouldn’t go to stop him. Here he thought killing Iris would break The Flash instantly. He could see now that it hadn’t been enough to take Wally’s sanity, Cisco’s hands, Caitlin’s humanity, Tracy Brand or the first fake Wells.

No...but it was fine. His smile disappeared as the heavy, oppressive finality of their next battle settled into the atmosphere.

“Mm-hm.” Flash glared viridescent daggers at his nemesis as he slowly, steadily approached. “Everything you broke, we put back together. ” He felt the empty chasm inside him calling him a liar, but he ignored it. Conscious of the steady march of time left to finish this and get back home, he kept moving. This was for Iris. “Every version of me I let you slaughter died for _this_ moment. Right now. _Every_ enemy I took down was _nothing_ compared to you.”

“Aw...” Savitar salivated, uncrossing his arms as they faced off. “ _Kneel_ _then._ ”

“You’ll have to kill me first.”

“Already done.” The speed force surged forth inside them both, lighting their eyes with equal electric menace. Flash dug his heels in, ready to tear him apart. Savitar did the same, every bit his darker reflection. “Oh, there’s just one other thing, Flash.”

Again, the hairs all over Barry’s body stood on end and he felt the presence of yet another speedster. His mind reeled, trying to guess who could possibly be coming now as a second stretched out forever and jets of purple electricity invaded his vision.

That second finally passed, and in place of the violet lightning stood Iris.

“I’ve been busy, too.” Barry almost didn’t hear or comprehend his enemy’s words as he stared at the love of his life, so soul-stirringly beautiful he staggered back a step. She was dressed in black like his enemy, emanating the unmistakable energy that could only be produced by the presence of the speed force inside her. She didn’t look afraid, or confused, or lost. Her large black pupils were cold as ice. “Well... _we’ve_ been busy. Meet the wife.”

“Hello, Flash…” she uttered as Savitar gazed at her, transfixed, lulled by her.

The Flash suddenly felt ten thousand times less confident as he realized what he was looking at.

This Iris was a speedster. And she was on Savitar’s side.

“No…” the wind tore the word from his throat in a shocked, broken whisper.

Barry’s heart thundered in his chest and he stood frozen in time. Iris stared at him, her scarlet lips resembling fresh rose petals, her smooth brown skin crowned in thick plumes of hair as silken and black as raven feathers. Violet speed bolts sparked and faded in her luminous eyes as Savitar watched Flash’s world close in on him. He walked up behind her, reaching out to stroke her back -- and Barry saw the metal spear punching a hole right through her from his nightmarish memories.

But that didn’t happen this time.

He watched, horrified, the world moving in slow motion, as Savitar gently guided her face toward his, tilted her lips upward, and kissed her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coming in part 2...
> 
> So how did Savitar manage to get his own Twisted Speedster!Iris? (ft. the smut you came for)  
> How the hell is Flash gonna get out of this one? Is he fast / strong enough to fight them both?  
> And what about the Future, Flash?


	7. Twisted, p2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Savitar and Iris six months before The Flash breaches to Earth-111...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your patience, and your awesome comments! I just got back from a long trip and decided to unload this bad boy to make up for my absence. Hope you guys dig it.

> **_Little woman, is it me, born to build your suffering?_ **
> 
> **_Are you crazy, just like me?_ **
> 
> **_To let me close, to let me be the one?_ **
> 
> **_Love’s a gun_ **
> 
>  
> 
> **_Pretty baby, let me know how to touch you, where to go_ **
> 
> **_With my fingers, with my tongue,_ **
> 
> **_With my anger..._ **
> 
> **_Love’s a gun_ **

 

-Twin Shadow, “Little Woman”

 

* * *

 

**_...part two…_ **

  
  


Six months before The Flash breached here for their last stand, Earth-111 saw the arrival of its first speedster in years. 

Admittedly, he had been desperate. This was his last play to stay alive; outrun his enemy long enough to fulfill their shared destiny. He had fought and raced his way across time, then the multiverse, in search of this respite. At first his hiding place but now, with more and more clarity, the dais on which he intended to erect his throne. Coming to the realization that his future self had been here before only cemented the choice as the right one in his twisted mind.

Savitar sat perched in one of the blown out, top floor windows of a loft building identical to the one from a life that was stolen from him. He scoffed quietly, gazing out as dusk turned to nightfall over the skewed mirror version of a city he once called home. 

The dark speedster had to hand it to himself - it was perfect.

Central City, of Earth-111, was a bleak town. With no Flash to protect it, it had seen its share of death and tragedy.

Not so long ago, humans were a second class here. Metahumans ran wild among them, almost wiping them out with unchecked powers. Until the so-called God of Speed had come to their rescue. From the future, of the past, wielding all of time and the multiverse in his grip. Oh, he nearly destroyed the place, and damn near all the metas causing so much trouble, before he disappeared into the speed force, not to be seen again. Until now.

Since the lighting storm shook the city to its core, the elements wreaked havoc on the loft. Slowly corroding the exposed brick, hardwood flooring, broken furniture, and the singed edges of lost memories that weren’t his. It sat condemned and hollowed all this time, the doppelgangers of this Earth’s Barry and Iris having perished in the storm.

As the stone likeness stood watching over the city from the fountain on Infantino street, a monument to his future, this loft stood awaiting his return, a monument to his past. Hatred and love for this place and everything it represented were permanently fused inside him. Constant centripetal force; the turn of time, bending and contorting, folding over on itself, reaching to ensnare him.

Well, he was used to that. This was different. This was destiny. He had made the right choice. His time here on Earth-111 could only end in either his downfall or his ascendancy.

Savitar hadn’t come here alone. He brought something - or rather someone - with him to help him turn the tides in this war. The bitter snarl on his lips transformed to a sinister smile. Flash was gonna be so surprised when he found out...

“I’m taking back  _ everything _ you took from me, Flash. And then I’m gonna destroy you,” he vowed, his maniacal anger quieting his loneliness for the first time in months. “Neither of us can outrun fate. It’s either you...or me. And you can’t kill a god.”

He heard the sound of the heavy, ancient stone shifting across the dust-covered floor behind him. Then the miniscule hairs all over his body stood on end.

Savitar turned toward the large cocoon sitting in the middle of the common area near the fireplace. It was glowing with increasing intensity. The smooth, unscarred side of his face was illuminated by its pulsing light.

She was ready.

He stood upright, his silhouette swathed in the violet glow of the cocoon. Taking his time, the dark speedster stepped down from the window ledge, walking toward his creation. The cocoon began to vibrate, it’s light threatening to drown out the shadows that had almost completely enveloped the lonely loft over the years. Savitar watched as it began to crack and splinter open. Light and energy spilled out of it, intensifying its radiance.

“That’s it… _ come on, _ ” he growled as hope and longing quickened his heartbeat for the first time in what felt like an age. “Wake up, beautiful.”

As if she heard his call, the cocoon exploded with energy and the room turned violet as she came bursting forth from her shell - running all around him with blinding speed. He watched her scaling the walls, zipping up and down the stairs and across the ceiling, running around and around the room in a cyclone of wind, electricity and power, shaking dust free from the nearly-dilapidated ceiling and walls. Finally, she stopped a few feet from him.

Naked. Vibrating. Her long, black mane wild and charged. Her eyes glowed with the speed force burning away inside her. She staggered, disoriented, and began to drop. In an instant, Savitar was by her side, catching her in his arms, his own trail of red lightning the only other indication that he had moved. With superhuman speed, he covered her in his jacket.

“I’ve got you,” he uttered, gazing down at her breathtaking face.

“How…?” came her faint voice at last as he reached up to gently remove a lock of raven curls from her lips. Her eyes glowed with electricity before fading to brown, and he was lost. Having her alive, warm and breathing in his arms again was a torture he hadn’t prepared for. “How did I get here? Why can’t I...remember?”

“You’re a time remnant. A temporal duplicate, like me.” He explained. In the windswept, abandoned space, he sat on his knees holding her, as subdued as he would ever be, only for her. “Your time was splintered, rewritten, against your will. You were left behind without a second thought.”  He couldn’t stop the tenderness from invading his voice. “ _ But I saved you. _ ”

“We know each other...I  _ know _ you...”

“Yes.” He dared to touch her again.  

She was now examining his face. Savitar moved into the light, so she could see everything. See  _ him _ . His scars. His darkness. His anger. “What happened to you?”

“I was disposable, like you. The Flash created me to die for his mistakes. I lived.”

“The Flash...” The sound of that name seemed to awaken something in her. Her eyes watered with tears as feelings she didn’t understand overwhelmed her. He recognized them, the memories she didn’t have access to anymore because time had erased them; ghosts dancing around them in the gloom. “The Flash did this to you?”

“It’s a long story.” He said flatly, scowling despite himself. He didn’t wish to frighten her - he needed her on his side - but he also didn’t wish to slash open more old wounds right this moment. “It doesn’t matter anymore. I took you far, far away from where The Flash abandoned you to die. Now I’m gonna make it so time will never touch us again.”

She winced and lifted her hand. It was vibrating. Iris gasped and clenched her fist to make it stop. “W-What did you do to me?”

Savitar offered her a crooked smile, and in an instant he had moved her from their crouching position on the floor to the window ledge. He wrapped his arms around her, sheltering her to him in the moonlight. He could feel the speed force beating beneath her flawless, warm skin.

He also felt the boiling tide of desire rushing toward him as she gazed up at him, her arms and hands finding their way around his neck. So beautiful, shaming Aphrodite and Diana and Ishtar at their most fearsome. A face that could bring a hero to his knees.

“ _ I gave you speed, _ ” he whispered gravely, his face and eyes moving with hers, commanding her focus. Love was winning out over the hatred inside him. Only for her, and she’d only just been born. “Speed like mine. Like his. So we can stop him from destroying more of us...together... _ forever. _ ”

“Barry?” Iris implored him, her hand sliding from his neck to touch his scars. Savitar closed his eyes involuntarily at her gentle caress. “My Barry? You came back for me.”

“That’s not my name.” He ground out, opening them again to let his dark gaze burn down into hers. He paused, unable to refrain from adding: “I _am_ yours. And you’re _mine_. But don’t ever call me that.”

“Then who are you now?”

 _God he wanted to_ _kiss her,_ consume her, make her feel how desperately lonely he’d been for an eternity. _Iris…I remember_ ** _everything._**

“Savitar.” He revealed, going rigid with the wretched fear of rejection.

She simply stroked his face; his scars. So calm and brave, always, even without the history Barry had stolen from her. Drawn to him, as he was to her. As he would always be; the one war he could never win.

“Savitar.” She repeated, her eyes swimming with emotion. “Thank you for coming back to save me.”

Hearing those words fall from her lips disturbed the ghost of his former self. Savitar nodded. “Always.”

Taking a deep breath, he sent his eyes across her mercilessly gorgeous visage several times over before letting the moment pass. He retreated back into his hardened shell, reaching up to unlock her embrace from around his neck, though it was terribly difficult for him.

“Now it’s time to run.”

 

* * *

 

And for ten weeks, that’s all they did.

They ran.

Every night - twin streaks of light, burning through the dark city in the blink of an eye. Scarlet and violet, illuminating the streets, scaling the rooftops, speeding round and round the gutted, ashen husk of the particle accelerator pipeline that created all the metas on this Earth years ago.

He trained her to do everything he could do, grooming her with a patient, steady hand. Schooling her in the ways of time travel, the speed force, and their approaching coronation as the God and Goddess of Speed. She took to it like a natural, as he had no doubts she would. But he kept his distance. She merely listened and learned from him, intuitively understanding his coldness.

She said nothing of his lingering looks, or when she woke some nights to catch him watching her sleep. He couldn’t bring himself to touch her. If he did, he wouldn’t stop.

So he allowed his longing and desire to brood. He kept telling himself she was here for a purpose. To help him defeat Barry Allen, The Flash, and rule by his side over time and the multiverse forever. Not because he had finally caved to loneliness. Not because part of him had unexpectedly felt just as gutted when he killed The Flash’s Iris to trigger his own creation.

He kept telling himself. Every second of every minute that he watched her, a rose breaking through concrete, spellbound. It didn’t help that she was now coming into her own as his twisted equal, crowned with the fearsome powers of speed _. _ She made one hell of a metavillian. Frost had her moments, but  _ Iris _ ...well. She already was a goddess to him. The more they ran together, the faster she got, the closer he came to falling to his knees to worship at her feet.

It wasn’t long before they got noticed. Then hunted.

One night, as they were running, they were confronted by a metahuman who could manipulate the earth beneath his feet; tossing trees, opening sinkholes, turning the roads to boiling rivers of tar to strike at them. They took him on together. When Savitar was compromised, Iris came to his aid. Savitar’s ashen heart came alive with pride, and love, and  _ lust _ when she delivered the final blow, just like he taught her. She came at him like a bullet, stabbing her hand through the meta’s chest, killing him in a strike so fast he barely blinked before he was dead.

Whispers turned to rumors. They became known. Violet and scarlet harbingers of terror. Tearing through the city at the speed of light, slashing away at any who dared to challenge them.

He was still smirking to himself about it tonight as he worked on the doomsday armor he was preparing for Flash’s inevitable arrival. Like the relentless pursuit of time, he could feel Barry Allen’s hatred across the multiverse, even without new memories to keep him one step ahead. One thing was certain - when The Flash finally came, he would come with everything he had left.

Above where he tinkered in the gloomy, makeshift speed lab he constructed from memory, violet lightning zoomed around and around the pipeline while Iris did her training. He tried to focus on his work, but he could perfectly picture her lovely body running at superspeed, and it was distracting him. He needed to do something about it. It was either go out and run it off, or give in. Maybe he should kill one of Team Flash’s doppelgangers, if they weren’t already dead. Maybe that would make him feel better. Nah...a good revenge killing wasn’t going to solve this. Neither was running. There was only one cure for what ached inside him.

Annoyed with himself for his weakness, Savitar stood upright and sighed hard. “That’s enough for tonight.” He called, turning back to the pipeline. “Come give me a hand with this and we can go home.”

He watched her ramp down her speed. A heartbeat later, she was sliding to a graceful stop on a jet of purple lightning in the speed lab. All feline curves, wrapped down to her ankles in the bandage-like black bodysuit she wore to train in.

“You know, you’re so right about how peaceful it is. I feel like I could go all night.” Her voice sounded out, soft, confident, and mesmerizing.

He stood staring at her glowing with sweat, windblown raven curls spilling down across her shoulder.  

“What?” Her smile bloomed prettily for him in the dim light. How she’d changed from the newborn in his arms ten weeks ago _._ She raised an eyebrow at his staring, but she didn’t take her eyes off of him either as she approached.

He lowered his gaze abruptly, his jaw going crooked as he burned inside. “You wear your hair down when you run.”

“I like the way it feels.” A few simple words and he was ready to rip that bodysuit apart at superspeed. “What are you working on down here, Savitar?” She came to a stop just in front of him, having to raise her chin to look up into his face, so close he could smell her salty-sweet sweat. “What are you always working on, all by yourself every night while I’m alone in bed?”

Savitar tilted his head down at her, momentarily riveted by her beauty and magnetic proximity. His eyes flickering from hers to her lips and back again, he finally answered: “An idea I got from our sentimental friend, Flash…well, actually from you.”

“Me?”

“Mm-hm.” He put distance between them, turning to crouch next to the speed suit he was painstakingly rebuilding from the tech they’d scavenged all over the city. He grunted as he shifted one of the superspeed absorbing alloy plates, freeing it from its place interlocked with the rest of the plates making up the suit. It was good to see his old friend again. Version 2.0, anyway. “A lightning rod.”

He could hear her closing the distance between them as he handed her the plate without looking.

“Lightning rod?”

“A memory. Or a feeling. From the past, the future...doesn’t matter.” Savitar sniffed, leaning over to examine the problem he was having with the alignment of the plates. They needed to be perfectly locked to maintain stability while running at superspeed, or the energy he built up would fry anyone inside alive. Turn them into speed dust. “Ever since he...we...got powers, you’ve brought them out like no one else.”

“So…” Iris turned the plate over in her hands while she worked it out for herself,  “This suit isn’t for defeating The Flash, is it?”

A bitter smile broke across his face as he turned finally to look up her. A dark angel, haloed in silver light. Savitar shook his head. “No. All I need is his speed.” Then he gestured with his chin to the suit, his black hair falling into his eye. “And this. It’s gonna help me bring out the lightning.”

He found it. A dislocated joint by the knee. Savitar turned his attention back to the suit, pulling the metal joint back into place to secure it. He reached for the plate. She handed it to him and he affixed it to the suit again, standing upright as he dusted off his hands.

She was near him before he took his next breath, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck. He had no choice but to look at her. “You need to rest. Take me home?”

Iris lifted herself on her tiptoes and nuzzled his scar with her nose, sending desire rushing through him. He reached up and took her hand. After a last once over of the nearly finished suit, they backed away from it together.

In a flash of entwined scarlet and violet light, they vanished.

* * *

 

In the loft again, where the tattered curtains fluttered in the breeze. It was raining tonight.

Maybe it would thunder.

Savitar sat as still as the statue on Infantino Street, staring at the embers still burning in the fireplace despite the damp. Iris had coerced him into changing from his usual to a black t-shirt and simple black sweatpants. She was speeding around behind him now, and he was hoping that when she was done she wouldn’t try to force him to sleep. He didn’t want to sleep.

“Savitar.”

He stood, turning to face the room. They had cleared away the rest of the debris, shifting the fallen rafters so that they could see everything from the bed. If he took her there, she wouldn’t sleep either. His eyes flickered from it to her. She was caught between the pale blue moonlight outside and the deep dark of the drafty loft. Dressed in black, as usual, wearing one of his shirts this time. Drowning in it, more like. A change from her skintight training ensemble. Unbuttoned, it hung open slightly, barely covering the round, buoyant breasts casting shadows across her sable skin. Her raven hair flowed down her back, where her ass and legs spilled out of the shirt to tease him even more.  

In an instant of violet speed, she was upon him.

“Why won’t you touch me?” Iris asked, the delicious weight of her sinking into him. Their gazes locked onto each other’s as she searched for the truth in his.

“You wouldn’t understand. Go to sleep, Iris.”

“No. Not tonight.” She grew defiant, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck, barely tall enough, but strong enough to give him pause. His shirt fell open and slipped off one of her shoulders, exposing her to him. Savitar looked, his eyes drinking their fill of her. God, she was beautiful. “You treat me like I’ll break if you touch me.  _ Why? _ ”

His heart clawed its way into his throat and he grabbed her by the side of the neck - seconds from bringing her closer. Iris wouldn’t relent.

“Ever since you brought me here, you made it clear what my purpose is..but there’s more, isn’t there? What are you not telling me? What are you so afraid I’ll run from?”

 _“_ I’m not afraid. But maybe you _should_ be.” Deep down, though it filled him with poisonous anger, Barry’s memories of her, his love for her, would never die. Savitar had to give her the choice. “Where we’re going, we can’t ever go back to being Barry and Iris _._ ” He shook his head at her, his hair falling into his eye. “Once this is over, the past, the future, it’s all locked in an endless cycle, _for eternity._ If you wanna run...now’s the time. There’s no going back, do you understand?”

Iris stared at him, her large pupils shining with calm certainty. “I’d rather spend eternity running with you by my side than live the rest of this life without you. The Flash took something from me, too.” She pulled closer to him as she stood on her tiptoes, sliding her downy flesh against his tense, long body, coaxing his hardness forth. She brought her lips close to the right side of his face, parted them, and licked his scar tissue from the bottom of his jaw to his hairline. Stimulating flickers of violet electricity shocked and aroused him as she went. “He took  _ you _ . Come to bed, baby.”

Savitar’s other hand went roaming, squeezing her, sending static electricity ricocheted across her body. Iris moaned, grinding against him, completely naked underneath his shirt. Tightening his grip on her neck, Savitar pulled her back so he could look at her again.

She simply gazed at him with fiery lust, a thirsty smile twisting her thick lips. Her eyes fluttered shut as his thumb moved across her mouth, trailing deep red electricity in its wake. “You tired?”

Iris shook her head, licking and biting at his thumb. “No. I wanna know what it feels like to have a god between my legs. I won’t break, I promise.”

Her words made him hard as sin. He couldn’t resist her anymore.

Savitar kissed her, releasing a deep groan as he sucked her luscious bottom lip into his mouth. Iris wrapped herself around his tall, strong body like a vine clinging to a tree to feel his arousal between her thighs. They kissed as if there was no oxygen but what they shared as he hoisted her up so she could hook her legs more securely around him.

He laced his fingers into her thick, raven curls and palmed her round ass with his other hand to aid her in her search for friction. His pants were pushed down below his pelvis, bringing his hard length skin-to-skin with her hot, wet folds. Savitar’s eyes screwed shut in utter devotion to tasting every inch of her mouth before moving down to kiss and bite at her throat as he teased her opening.

Iris hissed and raked her nails across his back, sending her violet energy across the skin beneath his shirt as she went. In response, her dark speedster opened his mouth, hovering above her breasts, breathing, gripping her to him so that she would hold still and feel every second of it. He dipped out his tongue, licking her breast from the bottom of her areole, across her springy brown nipple, and upward toward her collarbone - trailing a path of scarlet electricity in his wake.

The sensation made her tingle and moan, and he could feel her desire for him radiating powerfully from her every pore. Iris gyrated her body against his again, coating his clothing and skin in a heated, sticky trail of pearlescent precum.

Enough with normal speed.

In blinding flashes of scarlet and violet light, they stripped each other of their clothes, kissing and tasting each other as they went. Iris was wet, smelling of sex and feverish kinetic energy.

Savitar twisted her hair around his fist, and before another breath went by, she was face down on the bed with her ass in the air. He released her, knelt, and pushed his mouth up against her dripping sex. Iris moaned loudly as he practically inhaled her.

His entire face vibrating against her downy, sticky-wet flesh, tongue included, he drilled into her with two big hands firmly pulling her against him over and over again. Savitar feasted on a heady cocktail of Iris, getting high off the scent he’d been coveting for weeks as he swirled his vibrating tongue round and round her clit before claiming it between his lips and sucking hard. She came like thunder, clawing at the threadbare sheets, begging him to stop and continue all at once.

And then in a few high-voltage jets of red and purple, she was on top of him, tossing her head back as she finally felt his hard, thick length pushing into her tight canal. He hit her at her core, stroking her deep, shaking her foundations loose, igniting speed force bolts in her eyes.

He slowed time so he could watch her ride him, plummeting into the abyss beneath her with every moan, every sigh, every slow-motion flutter of her winged black lashes. He massaged her voluptuous ass, sliding her down and pushing her up, sending his energy into her with tiny red sparks from his fingertips. They lit up her skin like claw marks that disappeared as quickly as they came. Her perfect tits bounced and her luscious mouth parted so she could moan his name.

In a vibrant  _ flash _ , he was fucking her from behind, his arms wrapped around her as he pounded into her juicy depths, losing his mind all over again. “Iris...” his eyes shut tight, he slowed down, burying his face in her curls. He stopped resisting, finally. “I love you. I love you.  _ Ugghh, ugh, I love you. Fuck! _ ”

“I love you too-ooh, oooh,  _ ooohhh, fuck me harder! _ ” He clenched his jaw and fucked her harder.

She came again, spilling her endless desire for him all over his still-turgid cock as he pistoned into her through every tremor of her orgasm.

And -  _ flash _ \- they were grinding together at the window seat, her on top of him again. Savitar held Iris by the face and she sucked on his thumb, biting down on it while she rolled her hips against his, repeatedly taking all of him to the hilt.

He watched for her reaction as he began to vibrate his entire body. She threw her head back and rode him harder, her eyes lighting up as she began to vibrate too. Iris was so tight around him that soon they phased into each other, joined at the hip, both of them groaning and moaning with the unreal ecstasy of it until they separated again.

Finally, Savitar came hard, bringing their foreheads together, clinging to her dewy skin until it passed. They sat there, tangled together, breathing deeply in the dark.

Savitar lifted his head, the damp black hair in his eyes casting a shadow across his scars.

“Do you?” He couldn’t help whispering.

“Forever.” Iris answered, kissing his face reassuringly.

He angled his jaw upward to catch her mouth, kissing her slowly, passionately, and Iris reached down to massage him, still aching, still craving. Their tenderness began to transform to smoldering need as their kisses grew more intense, more unrelenting.

He grabbed her by the hair at the back of her head, pulling his lips from hers to lean back and look at her while she coaxed him fully hard again. Speed bolts flashed in her eyes.  _ Fuck me again _ , he read in the deep, black pools beneath those heavy lashes of hers.  _ And again, and again, mmm, and again… _

He let her work him, held captive by the power she had over him. And soon, they were at it again.

Savitar was intensely focused and commanding. Iris moaned and cried out as she bloomed around him like a vibrant rose bush in a dead garden. And then again. In the bed. On the floor. Against the wall. On the window seat. Wrapped up in swirls of light and endless, superhuman energy.

The rain fell outside while a thunderstorm of violet and scarlet flashed around the abandoned loft into the wee morning hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In conclusion...
> 
> We get back to the fight.   
> What else can Twisted Speedster!Iris do after six months of training from Savitar?  
> Moving at superspeed with time running out, a wounded Flash gets TS!Iris alone to plead his case.  
> How can Flash possibly win against 2 deadly speedsters and only a few minutes left before he's trapped here forever?
> 
> Epilogue...  
> The Future Flash, the God of Speed. Opposite fates in an epic battle of good and evil, or one and the same? And where does that leave Iris?


End file.
